


Foxes and Friends (FFoZ S1E16)

by J_Shute



Series: The Fantastic Foxes of Zootopia [19]
Category: Fantastic Mr. Fox, Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Baby Shower, F/M, Fluff, Funny, Investigations, Just ungodly amounts of fluff, Mystery, Private Investigators, Things go quote-unquote wrong, lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:53:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 35,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22784380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_Shute/pseuds/J_Shute
Summary: Zootopia-Fantastic Mr Fox Crossover.After being invited to Mr and Mrs Fox's Baby Shower, Nick and Judy expect to have fluffy moments and interesting conversations with friends old and new. But this isn't just a baby shower, it's a baby shower hosted by a quote-unquote Fantastic Mr Fox, which means there's absolutely no chance of things not spiraling out of control and into a contrived set of hustles, mischief and all around high jinks.Or, how Nick Wilde and Mr Fox have to do a bit of hustling and investigating in the background to keep things going along after something rather unexpected happened.
Relationships: Felicity/Mr. Fox, Jack Savage/Skye, Judy Hopps/Nick Wilde
Series: The Fantastic Foxes of Zootopia [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1086153
Comments: 37
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

**FFoZ S1E16**

**Foxes and Friends.**

.

**AN: Welcome back, to one of two big line tickets I’ve got planned for all you guys. That’s right, it’s the ‘Fox family baby shower’, originally planned to be a short fluffy chapter or two but then turned into the largest fic so far for one simple reason.**

**I realised that we all deserved to see Nick and Mr Fox quote-unquote working together. But on what exactly?**

**Hehehe, you’ll have to read on to find out but, I must admit, this was one of my favourite stories to both plan out and write. I’ve also commissioned an excellent bit of art by Ziegelzeig which is on display over on the Ao3 version.**

**Now, looking at my update schedule, there are 3 fics and 8 chapters left for me to publish before we get to the grand finale for season 1, which will probably be a full length story all by itself. After a bit of a hiatus, I’ve got back into writing it and… -oooh, it’s gonna be something. Now, with 7 weeks before I go on a holiday, I’ll probably squeeze in a mid week update somewhere or other, we’ll have to see.**

**Anyhow, enough rambling by me. On with the show. Thanks for following so far and stay pawsome.**

**.**

**.**

* * *

**.**

.

“I still think I should have gotten them a baby monitor.”

“Relax, Carrots, it’ll be fine.”

Judy smiled, rolling her eyes a little. “That’s easy for you to say, Slick. Have you ever dealt with little cubs and kits?”

The fox sitting next to her smiled. “Maybe not in the traditional sense, but recently I’ve been getting more acquainted.”

A little chuckle escaped from the bunny’s mouth. Regardless, she carried on driving, speaking as she did so. “I don’t think Operation Pacifier Clip counts, Nick.”

“Oh don’t be so hasty,” he warned, giving her a cunning look. “The _things_ little children tell you when they think you’re one of them…” He left it unsaid, giving an exaggerated shiver instead.

“Ha-Ha… -But still, I could give a little bit more to help Mr and Mrs Fox out, couldn’t I?”

Nick chuckled.

“-What?”

“Carrots,” he said, bringing out his fingers and beginning to list off of them. “You’ve already got a box of spare clothes in the back almost as big as you are, another box full of baby books, _another_ boxful of toys, and an assorted collection of weapons-grade-cute stuffed bunnies…”

“-You can’t call bunnies cute,” she reminded him, turning and raising a finger as she did so. He reacted, as usual, in faux outrage.

“Fluff, to think I’d ever forget that golden rule. What kind of fox do you take me for?”

She turned and smirked at him. “The one who just called bunnies cute.”

“Ah,” he interrupted, shaking his head. “ _Au-contraire_ , Fluff, I was merely referring to some stuffed toys, made in the likeness of bunnies, as cute.”

Judy was still for a bit, before relaxing. “Okay, you’ve got me there. But it isn’t a whole box of stuffed bunnies.”

“Indeed, I’m pretty sure I saw a very dapper stuffed fox in there too. Whose fur happened to be the same shade of red as the inside of your ears are right now.”

Judy stewed in her embarrassment for a little bit, before taking decisive action. “You know you love me?”

“Do I?” he asked, smiling. “Yes, absolutely and with all my heart. One-hundred percent.”

Judy was embarrassed again, but it was the kind that she liked. The kind that Nick gave her as they hung out, looked after each other, dated… She may have started this to see how it went, but after giving it her all she was really beginning to enjoy it. She glanced away from the road to look at Nick, the fox smirking back.

“Good,” she said, smiling. It wasn’t long now until they got to the Fox household, ready for Felicity’s baby shower. On hearing about her pregnancy, Judy was happy, and all too willing to help out. Being a bunny on top of that meant that she could send a simple word out and a whole host of donated things would arrive on her door, ready to be passed on to the new mother. Still… “I could have gotten her that baby monitor.”

There was a clearing of a throat next to her, as Nick brought out a letter. _“Dear all. I’d like to thank you so much for showing such care and interest in my wife’s current state. Indeed, it reminds my so very much of the heady days of her first pregnancy, in which the very lexicon of our lives and purpose was thrown into great confusion and disarray. For we, at that stage, were transitioning from young and independent mammals, into those bound by the need to care, love and raise a new mammal in this world of ours. We were, at short notice, bound to become parents, with all that came with that._

_A long time and many events have passed since then and plenty has changed. Much, like the mystery and anticipation that lies before the bringing of a new individual into our world, hasn’t. The best part of fifteen years is a long period in which to delay the birth of a new child, and consequently why a second celebration, or baby shower as it is oft known, is considered in order._

_While we’ll be very grateful for all well-wishes and gifts given with the aim of our benefit, there are a few things to note. Most of our gear from Ash’s days of incredible youth are still in working order. The crib, high chair, a variety of furniture and stroller were all kept in storage, and managed to weather incidents such as the great barn roof leak of twenty-thirteen. Such items as toys and clothes, or rather those we hadn’t been able to sell on by that point in time, were sadly lost. Consequently, we likely won’t need any major hard purchases of furniture or ‘essential gadgets’. For example, milk bottles and any related heating and sterilizing paraphernalia.”_

“Okay,” Judy admitted. “So they may still have a monitor.”

Nick nodded. _“What would be most welcome (or rather, what my wife has judged most helpful) would be new books, toys, clothes (with a requirement for unisex provision) and any other gift that you feel we wouldn’t initially seek out ourselves, but which is judged to increase the ease and satisfaction of the role of parent, or baby._

_… Yadda, yadda, yadda… Sincerely, Mr Fox.”_

“Which I’ve got,” she said, confidently. She nodded her head. “So, I’m all sorted on that front. And you?”

Nick paused, before his eyes widened. “I’ve just realized I’ve left the presents…”

“-What?” Judy panicked. “Right, I’ll…”

“-Here,” he continued, leaning down to pick up some goods.

Judy glanced over at him and sighed with relief. “I’d normally punch you,” she teased.

“That’s fox abuse.”

“It’s a good thing I’m driving then.”

“Absolutely. Do you know how many accidents are caused by fox abuse and driving?”

Smirking at him, Judy shook her head as she turned onto the right driveway. Up ahead, the thick oak tree that the Fox family lived in rose up at the crest of the hill. On one side, where the ground rose up to the second floor, the doors had been opened and a small marquee set up, giving some more space for the many visitors and well-wishers who were attending. Their vehicles were parked lower down and Judy pulled up their cruiser, on loan from the precinct, as she and Nick got out. Both carried two of her boxes, while he carried his goods as well, politely declining Judy’s offer to deal with it.

Turning, they set off, quickly making their way up as they followed the paths and steps laid out. As they went though, Judy heard some groaning and, looking down, saw another mammal on the way up. It was a small mole, struggling by himself as he tried to navigate the oversized steps. He had a tattered old chocolate box that he was using as a makeshift intermediate step between each of the stone steps, but having to stop, turn, and retrieve it with each one made it an onerous task. She gasped slightly, putting down her boxes and turning to him. “Do you need a paw?”

“I have two fine ones, thank you,” he said in a raspy, nasal voice, turning back down to pull up both his present and his step-box.

“I mean, do you want some help being carried to the house?”

“I have my dignity,” he muttered, turning up to try and face her, only to stare past her. “And this is very undignified. Yes please.”

She leant in and picked him up with one paw, his present and book with another. Together, they set off, leaving her presents where they were; she could pick them up again later. First, she could catch up with Nick and drop the mole off. With him carrying his load, that was fairly easy, and all three of them entered the living room together. Mr Fox was there, waiting for them.

“Officer Nicholas Wilde and Judy Hopps of the ZPD,” he introduced. “Splendid to see you, you’ll be glad to know that your arrival has helped ensure all plans for this night are lining up like clockwork. I’m sure all members of my family will be happy to know of your presence.”

“Yup,” Nick said, smiling. “We two mammals, bunny and fox. Bringing gifts, packaged in box.”

“And most generous they seem,” he said, nodding in approval while rubbing his paws together. “We have a designated pile over yonder,” he said, gesturing over to a corner of the room where a large pile of gifts was already growing. Judy watched as a female badger placed down a small one on it before wandering over to the little nook nearby, where Felicity Fox was sitting down, wearing her yellow dress with red apple decorations, a baby bump clearly visible. “Direct proceeding to the main mammal of interest afterwards is optional, though generally recommended,” he said with a smirk.

The pair nodded as Nick began walking over, the presents in store. Judy began following too, only to be cut off by a rather whiny complaint. “I have my dignity, you know?”

“Oh gosh,” Judy gasped, as she placed the mole back down on the floor. He held his present and his step-book with him, and brushed himself off. “I’m so sorry.”

“I am my own mammal,” he carried on. “With dreams and aspirations…”

“Phil, it’s a pleasure to meet you too,” Mr Fox spoke, breaking the small mammal’s line of conversation.

“Nice to meet you too,” he said, as the pair began talking. Seeing that it was all okay, Judy motioned to the door. “I just need to get my presents,” she said, spotting Mr Fox nodding before she departed. Back out onto the path, she began making her way back down, skipping along as she went. Her presents weren’t that far away, and she could quickly retrieve them and…

She had to double take as she spotted a familiar bunny walking up the path, a set of boxes in his paws. Were it not for his distinctive stripes, she’d have been certain that it was a case of mistaken identity. But no, it was him, and she was suddenly curious as to why he was here. “Jack?”

“Judy?” he asked, as she skipped down to meet him. Their eyes met, and he relaxed, “Now, I’m pretty certain that there’s some long and complex backstory to you being here,” he said, smiling as he hammed himself up. “The place for some long flashback scene, or montage, designed to pull on the emotions or reveal some hidden facet. Judy Hopps, give me your best!”

“Nick’s a friend of the family.”

He twitched a little, but carried on smiling. “Judy Hopps,” he said, buckling himself up. “You once again prove yourself a master of deadpan humor, with a sprinkling of Occam’s razor to boot."

"Yup," Judy said, paws on her hips and smiling. "Just like the old days, keep it short and sweet."

"‘Brevity is the soul of wit’ as they say.”

She smiled. “If you think that’s good, you should have seen it when I pulled the ‘good at multiplying’ joke on Nick. But yeah, we got to know the Fox family. Does Skye know them too?”

“Yeah,” he agreed, nodding. “She mentioned it and I decided I wanted to help with it.”

Judy paused, blinking for a few seconds, before bringing out her carrot pen. “Okay. I’d like to know who you are, and where the real Jack Savage is?”

“I may have gone through some offscreen character development,” he replied, before pausing, his ears raising up and pivoting. Judy’s did too and, looking over to the noise source, she gasped.

“Skye!? How’s the leg?”

Striding over in her crutches, the swift fox vixen sighed. “Seen better days,” she said, before pausing, her head cocking slightly in confusion. “Do you know the family?”

“Nick and I do,” she said. “What about you?”

“I know Felicity via my sister, and do repairs for Foxy,” she said, as she looked up to the house. She paused a little, thinking. “Is Nick up there?”

“Yes,” Judy began, her nose twitching a little. “Listen, I know you and him don’t exactly get along…”

“-I’ve been hearing a lot of things about him,” she pondered. “I… I think he deserves a second chance.” There was a pause, then a slight guffaw. “I’d never think I’d say this, but I’m kinda glad he’s here.”

“And I’m happy you two are here too,” Judy said, before she paused, looking at the swift fox's crutches. “Oooh… It’s a bit of a way up, do you want any help?”

“I’m…” Skye began, her voice reserved at first before trailing off. She checked herself, closing her eyes and taking a breath in, before nodding. “Yes please.”

“Right then,” Judy nodded, as they set off. Her boxes and stuff could wait until next time. After all, it wasn’t raining or anything. So, she walked by Skye on her bad side, helping to lift her up whenever a troublesome step came up. However, she was more interested in talking to Jack.

“I mean,” she said, “good for you that you’re trying to put some effort into some other stuff, but what's changed?”

Carrying Skye's and his gifts, Jack looked over and shrugged. “Just the most tired and overused cliché ever.”

Pausing, it took longer than she’d like to admit for Judy to get it. “Oh, the damsel in distress,” she said, looking up to Skye. “You decided to look after her after all?”

“Well, I decided to give her a little gift. Then I found out that she was in a bad situation. I started helping her, and… -Well, something changed...” He trailed off as he said it.

“What was that?”

“I dunno. I just feel like I want to try and put some effort into non-acting stuff. Skye mentioned the baby shower, I had no reason to go, but I thought I would try some more.”

“Well,” Judy said, a big smile growing on her face. “Congratulations.”

“He’s not the one having a baby, you know,” Skye joked as they approached the house. Once more, Judy entered in, Mr Fox waiting to greet them.

“Ah, Miss Autumn plus one. A fine bonus to this meetup. We’d like to welcome you all to the celebrations, gifts go to your left, the centerpiece of attention is to your right, we hope you have a pleasant baby shower.”

“Good to meet you too, Foxy,” Skye said. “This is Jack Savage, my Boyfriend.”

The jackrabbit nodded, walking forwards. “Hi.”

“And a warm hello to you too,” Mr Fox replied, shaking his paw. “You’re in theatre, correct?”

A smile grew on his muzzle. “It is my home. My domain. My kingdom.”

“I meanwhile am a jack of all trades doing various odd jobs, while also writing as a columnist for a newspaper,” he said.

“Opinion?”

“General observation with an artistic flare.”

“So, recounting the well-known facts with a greater concentration of flourishes,” Jack parried, a little spark in his eyes.

A little spark matched by the ones in Mr Fox’s. “If by that you mean adding the characteristic most commonly known by the younger generations as, quote-unquote, ‘pizazz’ to various topics at choice in order to hook readers into otherwise disinteresting conversations, then you may be correct.”

“So the building up narratives, with ever more complex linguistic compositions, from baseline plots and ideas. It seems that our artistic endeavors are more similar than we once presumed, though I feel that in the realms of embellishment I may still come out on top.”

“Certainly, the expansion of small snippets and heresy into long-winded and deep narrative performances that are highly obfuscated in their verbatim, a practice whose zenith I am the singular individual in this abode to nearest contact. Indeed, this reminds me of the time that my grandfather, a codgety old fellow whose fur was more often than not falling out with mange, talked about building a sled for a race. Interesting thing about sledding back in the days of the climate wall commissioning…”

Judy politely backed off, leaving the two males in their element. She could go and get those boxes at last, though she was broken off by a familiar voice.

“I know you wanted to get more, Carrots, but those two?”

She smiled as Nick walked up to her. “Skye happens to know Mrs Fox; says it’s through her sister.”

He nodded, before pausing. “I see the leg thing is true.”

“Yes,” Judy sighed, “but it seems Jack has found his motivation. He’s looking after her.”

Nick nodded in agreement, before pausing as he saw someone outside. “That’s why I couldn’t find Ash,” he said, pointing down to one of the barns. “Hang on, I’m just going to catch up.”

Judy nodded, seeing him go, before making her own way down. Presents, after all. “Hopefully no more distractions,” she said, as she skipped down to where they were. As she approached though, she saw some new mammals turn up. “Well, maybe I can work with that distraction.”

She waited and smiled as Kris and his father approached, both carrying their own wrapped presents under their arm. “Miss Hopps,” the latter said, smiling and nodding.

“Dr Silverfox,” she greeted, smiling. She turned to shake paws with Kris too. “Kris.”

“Miss Hopps.”

“Please, call me Judy,” she said, before turning to her boxes.

“Want some help?” the young fox asked, Judy nodding in response. He passed his present to his father, took one of her boxes, and all three of them began making their way back up. They chatted a little as they made the journey, mainly the usual small talk, as well as the bunny asking the young fox about how he was doing in their new home. Kris was happy to talk back, and they were all in a good mood as they approached the tree. Nick and Ash were waiting outside, and they waved as the group meet up.

“Carrots, if I keep on sending you out will you keep returning with more mammals?”

She ignored him, passing her box to Nick before taking the one Kris was carrying. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s put these down. The three adults nodded, heading inside, while the two teenagers stood awkwardly outside.

.

Ash paused, getting his fingers out and flexing them. A lot of things had been going on, giving him little time to practice what he’d been learning. Still, a bit of a warm-up with Nick, and he felt good. Out came his fingers, as he signed to his cousin. “ _How are you?”_

_“I’m good, Ash. And you?”_

He shrugged. _“I’m okay.”_

A slight look of concern grew across the silver fox's muzzle. “ _Are you feeling okay?”_

…

 _“Yes, I just said so.”_ Ash replied, his eyes narrowing a little as his tail gave an irritated sweep.

Kris paused for a second or two. _“Just concerned.”_

The older cousin’s head cocked a little in confusion. _“Why? I’m okay.”_

_“Well, you’re not good…”_

_“But okay is good. It means nothing is bad.”_

_“You just didn’t say good.”_

_“Things have been fairly neutral recently.”_

_“Even with the kit?”_

_“Oh, I’ve been very excited for that.”_

_“Is that sarcasm or not sarcasm?”_

“Why would it be sarcasm?” Ash spoke, Kris flinching back a little. The silver fox thought for a little, before carrying on.

“I just thought that if you were so excited, things would be good.”

“Is there a problem with everything just being okay?” Ash asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“I guess not,” Kris replied. “It's just your use of semantics was a bit contradictory.”

Ash opened his mouth to speak, only to stop himself and shake his head. “Right,” he grunted. “Though I’d argue that it’s the limitations of sign language – no tone…”

“I guess,” Kris said, with a smile. They both relaxed, Ash slowly walking over to a small nook in the outside of the tree to sit down at, Kris joining him. “How are the preparations going?”

“They’re mostly done,” Ash replied, as he smiled proudly. “I helped decorate the nursery and stuff, and my new room.”

Kris nodded. “I also helped,” he said. “My Dad and I made some presents.”

Pausing, the red fox nodded, smiling. “They’ll be great,” he said. “I’m fine with that.”

…

“You know, your stuff is probably better,” Kris spoke, as he turned and put a paw on Ash’s shoulder.

There was a flicker of an ear, but his cousin spoke cordially back. “You don’t need to say stuff like that to make me feel better, I’m fine with it.”

“I…” he began, before pausing. His ears tipped back and down, and he looked forward, out across the fields and trees and towards the towers of downtown. “We did different things, Ash,” he said. “My father and I both prepared little things which mean a lot to us… But what you did was a lot of work that might make things a lot easier for others. Or makes them a little happier every day.” He turned back to his cousin and looked down, grabbing his paw in his own. “Maybe in the odd moment, our things will be better. But I think in a lot of ways what you did will be better too.”

…

“You know I didn’t need that pep talk,” Ash said, as he looked over to Kris. He held back for a bit, before a smile grew on his muzzle. “But thanks a lot I guess… -what did you get, by the way?”

“It’s a secret for now, but our gifts are things that mean a lot to us,” he said. He smiled as he said it, relaxing back and remembering. His eyes closed, and a sad look of longing grew on his face, something noticed by Ash.

“You okay?”

He nodded. “I’m okay,” he replied.

“Good,” Ash agreed, as he stood up. “Anyway, before we do this baby thing, I think we have some unfinished business.”

“Well, I’m happy to finish it,” Kris replied, as he stood up. The pair looked at each other and stepped in, making their way to the staircase. The inside of the house wasn’t that big, however, and they had to jostle around the growing crowd. Passing a queue that was forming for the downstairs bathroom, they reached the stairs and began making their way up.

.

Meanwhile, Nick, Judy and Dr William Silverfox were adding their gifts to the pile. Grabbing Kris’ one, Nick slipped it onto the top of Judy’s pile, while Kris’ father tenderly placed his, a wrapped-up book by the looks of it, down in a corner.

“It’s something very special, I guess,” Nick said, looking on.

The silver fox nodded, sighing as he did so. “Yes,” he said, smiling sadly. “Honestly, I was almost a little worried about parting with it. But I’m certain it’ll bring a lot of joy to dear Felicity.”

“Yeah,” Nick said, as he turned away, scratching the back of his head. He looked around, noticing that Judy had gone off to talk with the lady badger from earlier. Mr Fox was also close by, and would have likely overheard and then slipped into their conversation were it not for the male badger currently talking to him.

So, it was just Nick and Kris’ father.

He liked him.

He really did.

He was so very like someone no longer in his life…

…

“Say, what’s it like?” he asked, quietly.

“What’s what like?”

Nick shrugged. “Being a Dad, I guess.”

Dr Silverfox turned to Nick and smiled, bringing a chair over. He still looked gaunt and weak, a constant reminder of his illness, but he settled down and spoke with a youthful optimism. “Well, I guess it depends on who you are and who your child is,” he pondered. “But with Kristofferson, it’s the most amazing, rewarding thing. It’s more than that, even. It’s a bit hard to explain, but it’s almost like he’s a part of me…”

“Hmmm?”

“Ever had someone who you thought was your soul mate?”

A smirk grew on his muzzle. “You could say that.”

“Well,” he said. “You know how it isn’t about you anymore, it’s about us. It’s like that with me and him. My son isn’t just my son, he’s my closest friend, my greatest confidant… He’s someone I care for more than myself.” There was a long pause, and a sigh. “When I was ill, I was more scared about leaving him an orphan than my own death. When I was recovering, I just wanted to recover faster so that he could have his father back. When I finally got here, I was so happy to see him fitting in, thriving… I wake up every morning and I wonder how he’s feeling, if he’s happy here, how he’s fitting in.” He trailed off, and Nick looked over to see him wearing the biggest smile he’d ever seen. “He makes me happier, and prouder, than any other mammal alive… I guess that’s what it’s like, being a father.”

Nick nodded, looking away as he felt a melancholy spread through him. He’d been totally expecting it, but still it came. Dumb fox…

“You okay?”

Nick sighed, feeling a little apprehensive… -First time in a while, actually. Still, he closed his eyes and breathed in, he could do this. “I’m guessing my father was like you.”

William’s ears drooped down, and he silently pushed a paw out. Nick was tempted to draw his back, but he let the other fox place his over it. It felt good. “I’m…” he began to say, before stopping himself.

“It may be unoriginal, but you can say that you’re sorry,” Nick snarked. That felt a little better.

“I am… -How old were you?”

“Seven.”

“Kris was barely three…”

Nick flinched. He knew Kris had lost his mother, but at that age… He felt his heart shiver. “I know what it’s like to lose a father,” he said sadly. “Not a mother though… -Does he have any memories of her?”

“One,” William replied, sadly. “But it’s a long and precious one… It’s actually the inspiration for his gift to Felicity.”

“That’s nice,” Nick agreed, looking over to the pregnant vixen, still talking with friends. He’d forgotten that this was her sister who they were talking about.

“My gift is very much related to her too,” he said, trailing off a little. “As I said, something very dear, and very precious.”

“I’m sure she’ll love it,” Nick said, smiling. “How’s Kris talking the news, by the way?”

“Good. He’s very excited.” There was a pause, and a chuckle. “I’m hoping he gets very involved. He never got the luxury of getting a sibling…” he said, trailing off. “We were trying for one, when…”

Nick’s ears lowered down. “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” he replied quietly, nodding. “But hopefully he’ll get to make lots of good memories with Ash’s new sibling, almost like it was his own…” There was a pause and a chuckle. “I suppose that’s one good thing to come out of my illness.”

“That’s an interesting take, but I can roll with it,” Nick replied, smirking.

“Yeah. But, honestly, I should have moved to Zootopia a long time ago. Bringing Kris over to meet his family.”

“Are you sure? I thought he liked where he grew up.”

“He did,” William replied, shrugging. “And I guess it made sense to stay until my parents, being as old as they were and needing some care themselves, passed away, and then he had his friends… -But at the same time, he had this connection to his mother that he wasn’t getting.” He spoke sadly, looking over at Felicity. “Maybe we should have sorted out holidays and such. But having him staying here, I hoped he’d get to know his mother more, even if it was by proxy.” He paused, and smiled. “I’m glad that Felicity was there to be a mother for him when I was ill, and I hope she can continue to be that.”

Nick smiled and leant over, wrapping his arm around Dr Silverfox’s back. “Well, I’m sure she will, just like I’m sure that you’re a fantastic dad.”

Slipping back, Nick watched the warm smile grow on the other fox’s face. He nodded, and patted Nick on the shoulder. “From someone like you, who did so much for this city and my family, that’s a great honor. And Nicholas, if you ever want anyone to talk to, just call me. I think I can extend the same favors to you that Felicity did to my son.”

Deep down, it may have been what he’d wanted, but it still came as a paralyzing shock to Nick. He stood there, feet rooted to the ground, as a warm feeling seemed to creep through him, tingling as it reached his extremities. Biting his bottom lip a little with his front teeth, his paws trembling, his breath getting deeper, Nick, for one of the few moments in his adult life, was left speechless. “T-T-Thank you,” he managed, as a goofy smile grew on his muzzle.

Dr Silverfox just smiled and nodded. “It’d be an honor, almost like raising my own boy.”

Taking a big breath in to steady himself, Nick let it out. “Wooo… Yeah, thanks…” he said, a smile on his muzzle. “Though, to be fair, I already have a mother, and I don’t think a dress would suit you.”

There was a brief pause, before both foxes broke down into hysterics.

“I’ll… I must… I must say, that’s something that… that Kris doesn’t do.”

“Hey,” Nick replied, giving a wink. “It’s called a hustle, sweetheart.”

.

Their laughter filled the room, though most mammals let them get on with their own business. Judy, who’d just finished talking with a badger lady, watched the two grab some food and wander outside. She was beginning to get a bit hungry herself, maybe she’d get something. She began making her way over, having to slip through a small crowd who’d been waiting for the toilet and had just told that they could use the en-suite upstairs, before reaching the table. Scanning around, she grabbed some carrot sticks and humus and began munching.

“Oh!” came an annoyed grunt. “Judy Hopps is a friend of Foxy’s. Right then…”

Looking to her side, she noticed a thickly built badger approach, grabbing some finger food himself. “A pleasure to meet you,” she said.

He paused, before pushing forwards to shake her paw. “Badger, of Badger, Beaver and Beaver, attorneys at law,” he said.

Judy paused as they let go, a feeling of worry seeping into her. After all, he’d held back when seeing him. He was a predator… “Is anything wrong?” she asked, hoping that it was just a misunderstanding.

He snorted, her ears crashing against the back of her head as she did so. “I’ll be frank. As someone who deals with a mammal like Foxy, him being friends with a mammal of such… shall we say propensity for action, as yourself, naturally causes me great concern.”

“Oh,” she said. That wasn’t so bad. “Why?”

He snorted. “I have to legally represent Mr Fox and deal with his business, given that he won’t follow my advice and get out of it. Now, while not in the realms of criminal or even borderline activity, we’re talking about a mammal who, employment wise, is in a very unstable position.”

“I…” she began, blinking. “I’m not sure what the problem is?”

“On the newspaper side, one libel case or one bad mix-up can knock out his sole stable source of income, and on the other side… His pest control activities and smallholdings are very loose sources. I would NOT want to base any livelihood on them, from purely practical terms. Any one of them could make it all fall through. He was very lucky that the nighthowler case ended when it did… -so I guess we can thank you for that one.”

One of Judy’s ears went up, the other going down. “Hang on, is he in debt? And I’m still not sure why I’m a problem.”

“I wouldn’t say you’re a problem in and of yourself,” he explained. “It’s just that mammals who’ve done things like yourself might attract detractors, who might target loved ones instead of you…” He paused, and his eyes narrowed. “And of course, while I have no qualms about you going on various escapades, I wouldn’t trust Foxy not to follow you on them and get himself in trouble.”

“Right,” she said, thinking she was getting it. “You think that I’d pull him into trouble.”

“It raises the possibility of him getting in trouble himself, which is already stupidly high as this is Foxy we’re talking about. I do have a lot of experience with him. And, while not in debt, his reserves are low. With this new baby, a nasty hit could send everyone up cuss creek without a paddle.” He paused, sighing.

“Well, I guess his friends could all help him out,” Judy said, looking around at the crowds.

“Well, yes. I suppose. I could offer him a very good remortgaging on this place… What with its unique rustic take on the lighthouse aesthetic. But even with me pushing the limit, I’m pretty certain I’d end up with the place at the end.”

Judy sighed. “Well, I’ll try and keep him out of trouble.”

Mr Badger nodded, moving to speak only to be cut off by Nick as he walked up next to them, grabbing some food for himself. “She’s the biggest trier I know, but even that’s asking the impossible,” he teased.

“Well I’d still recommend it,” Mr Badger advised with a frown. “Though I don’t rate your chances highly, given who you’re dealing with.” There was a pause, and he relaxed somewhat. “Regardless, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” she said, Nick nodding along too.

He nodded and stepped away from the table only to jolt, frowning as a weak voice piped up. “Have you seen my box?”

Badger frowned. “No,” he said, looking down. “Phil. While you may be legally blind, please look where you’re going.”

“I’m sorry,” the small mole croaked. “I’m just pacing. I need the bathroom, and the queue is long.”

“You know,” Judy offered. “The en-suite upstairs is open. I can take you there.”

He raised his little black muzzle up as he tried to look Judy in the face, and he spoke up, pointing straight forwards to Badger. “I want my independence and dignity. Don’t hit me with your culture of low expectations,” he said, before walking off.

Judy looked nervously at him, and then up at the badger.

“He’ll be fine,” he said, before walking off, Nick wandering off in a different direction.

“Right,” Judy replied. She wasn’t quite as sure, but she’d still trust him. Grabbing the last of her food and seeing that there was still a small group of mammals around Felicity, she went outside. It was less crowded there and, as she looked around, she saw some familiar faces almost hidden behind the curve of the tree. She thought she might as well give them a visit, and some help when required. “Need a paw, Skye?”

Sat down against the tree, Skye looked up at her and slowly shook her head. “Not now, thanks.”

Judy nodded but walked over anyways, easing herself down next to the vixen and Jack. Both had their own plates of food and were fairly isolated from the rest of the group, so Judy thought she could give them a bit of company. Sitting on the floor next to the striped buck, who was lying down with his back propped against the tree, she started munching on her food. She was halfway through a corn cob when Jack spoke out.

“How’s the job going?”

“Good,” she replied, looking over to him. “I mean, we’re still mopping up after the big raid a while back. Not much I can talk about there.”

Jack smiled a little, before looking up to Skye. “So, no chances for prying and conversation,” he said, smiling a little before glancing up at Skye. “Ah… a nice excuse to be lazy.”

She chuckled a little. “Maybe you don’t need one,” she said, smiling. “We all need some time to ourselves, here and there, don’t we?” Easing over, she lay down a paw and began scratching Jack’s head, the buck squirming up into her, a happy look on his face.

Judy couldn’t help but notice it and smile. It seemed they really had found something that worked out, and she had to admit that it looked pretty good. Looking at Jack, she imagined Nick with the same content look on his muzzle, her paw being the one treating him. She couldn’t help but squirm a little at the image, the thought sending her warm and gooey inside.

And then a paw landed between her ears, began scratching, and she jolted in surprise before submitting under a wave of pleasure.

“I could tell you were envious,” Nick said, smiling as he sat down next to her. Her knees buckling a little, she lowered herself to the floor too, and then all four of them were then sitting together. Nick and Skye on the outside, their bunnies on the inside.

“I was actually thinking of giving you the treatment,” Judy sighed contently as she relaxed under his touch, looking up at Nick next to her. His mouth puckered a little, before his whole face went all sly and cool.

“Do you still want to do that?” he teased, the tone sending a ripple of excitement down to the tip of her tail.

She’d have said no just a few seconds before, but now… Looking at him… She felt like she was being drawn in, something she was all too eager to let happen. “Maybe I do,” she said, as she leant up, her fingers flowing through the fur on his cheek.

“Sly bunny…”

“Dumb fox.”

There was a clearing of a throat from their side, and both turned to see Skye giving them a slightly nervous look. “This is someone else’s baby shower, remember?” she said cautiously. They were off to the side of the tree and, glancing around, she couldn’t see anyone who’d seen them.

“Really?” Nick asked, incredulously. He glanced around, before shrugging. “I thought we were here to knight Sir Judy Hopps of Bunnyburrow.”

That set his bunny off, and Skye looked on, a faint grin growing on her muzzle. Shaking her head, she let it grow out wide. “You know what I mean,” she said. “We don’t want to embarrass ourselves or anything.”

“I know that,” Nick replied, as he took his paw off of Judy’s head and pulled it up one of her ears. As it went, his claws played and toyed with then sensitive skin, sending Judy flinching and moaning a little. He finished with a flourish, whisking his paw up and off her ear tip, the bunny’s face contorting from pleasure and left leg kicking out on reflex.

“Aaaahhh!” she moaned.

“Enjoying it, Carrots?”

He smiled warmly at her, only to feel a shiver of cold plunge into his heart as she suddenly curled up, glancing around. Her ears were flushed red and a paw covered up her mouth; it was like an encore to her reaction on first seeing the mystic springs oasis.

“Carrots?” Nick asked, a slight panic in his voice. His ears drooped down, and he felt a pit forming in his stomach. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

“Don’t worry…”

“-embarrass you…..”

“Don’t worry...” Judy said firmly, grabbing his paw. They looked into each other’s eyes, and both smiled. “I’d have probably made the same goof up,” she said, before looking over at Skye. “It seems you’re the one with the gist of everything.”

The vixen also looked a bit flushed, but it was calming down, and she looked at Nick curiously before shrugging. “I guess,” she said, before looking down at Jack. She’d been gently petting him throughout. “What do you make of all this?”

He blinked a few times before glancing up at her, a sudden smile growing on his face and a spark lighting in his eyes. “Man, I don’t even have an opinion.”

Skye shrugged. “Oh, okay then. I guess you just don’t embarrass easily.”

Jack was left slack jawed, then disappointed, then confused as Skye looked over to Nick. She gazed at him for a second or two, her head cocking slightly, before she took a deep breath in. “You know… Back before, you used to be the most unapologetic mammal I knew,” she said. “Yet, just then…”

A serious expression grew on his face and he nodded. “Let’s just say that Judy here set me on the right path,” he said, looking down at her. “So much so she’s had to help me from going too far the other way.”

“Jack told me about that one,” she said, looking down at him. “And the more I hear, the more it does seem that you have changed…”

Nick nodded and then smirked. “Couldn’t have done it without some help from a special bunny.”

“Well, two special bunnies,” Judy pointed out, jabbing Jack in the side a little.

“He does seem like a cool dude,” the striped buck added.

Skye looked at all of them and took a deep breath in, before looking at Nick. “I think we can both agree that I didn’t like the old you,” she said. 

“No you did not,” Nick agreed, before looking at her solemnly. “And I promise, he’s gone. No mischief of untrustworthiness coming from this fox. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. Ranger scouts honour.”

“Promise?” she asked.

“Promise,” he said, as she smiled a little.

“Given all I’ve heard, I think that I should give the new you a chance. I think I’d like to meet him.”

Nick looked back at her, silent for a second or two, before he nodded. “You know what, I quite like the sound of that.”

“Yeah!” Judy added happily, jumping up and looking between the pair. “We could all go out together or something.”

Skye nodded. “You know, Jack and I have some friends who really want to meet you two. Maybe we could organise a get together?”

“I guess I can try and chip in too,” Jack added, sitting up. “Do a fair share.”

Judy nodded, before smirking and looking at Skye. “I think I need time to work out what you’ve done to the old Jack too.”

“Judy,” he pointed out, going a bit aloof. “I’ll have you know that Skye was merely the catalyst for this change, and most of the work is at my own paw.”

“Yup,” Nick agreed. “That’s why it’s only change lite.”

“And that was a conscious decision in order to stop going all overboard like you did,” the striped bunny carried on.

“Touche,” Nick agreed.

Judy was about to add something when her ears stuck up, hearing something off in the distance. It was the sound of a fork on a glass.

“Guys,” Jack said, cutting her off. “I think we need to go inside.” He paused and turned to Skye. “Need a paw?”

She nodded and he helped her up, while Nick and Judy got up by themselves. Together, they joined the crowd in the main lounge, filtering to the front. Before them, sitting on her chair, was Felicity, her husband and son by her side. Mr Fox had the glass and fork in his paw and, checking everyone was there, he cleared his throat.

“Baby shower,” he announced, pondering slightly. “A slightly unusual concept, if taken literally, or a potential yet to be invented device that might become a future staple of such events. Giving a baby shower at a baby shower, it has the potential to be a fun novelty if anything, up there with current classics such as model cakes comprised of disposable mammalian waste absorbing undergarments. In any case, the term, when researched, is based on the concept of showering the expectant mother to be with gifts and well wishes. That, or it’s an extension of the ‘bridal shower’, itself named for the custom of slipping gifts inside a parasol which is then opened above the lucky lady.” He paused, looking over to his wife and smiling, before slipping his paw behind the chair she was in and pulling out a little fabric sunshade. “As such, may we?”

Felicity, looking on a bit surprised at it, smiled. “They say that opening this inside is bad luck,” she pointed out.

“Which is why I purchased you a parasol, fabric covered and therefor not waterproof, in doing so not meeting the dictionary definition of an umbrella.” He gave her a wink, let out two short whistles and then clicked his tongue twice.

“You really are ‘quote-unquote’ fantastic, Mr Fox,” she said, looking at him in the way only a lover would, before she pulled up the parasol and opened it. Both glitter and cards showered on her, and she seemed to glow as it came down. Mr Fox turned and gave a bow to the clapping audience.

“Whatever the source of the custom’s name, it is a celebration of new life,” he said, looking around the room. “A new arrival on our planet, just like all of us bar one once was. Of course, for that one, it’ll be an upcoming and exciting day, and once that everyone is looking forward to.”

He looked at his wife, whose paw was on her bump, soon joined by his. Mr Fox looked on proudly, only to pause, a concerned look on his face. “You know,” he said, “I think the kit would enjoy having his big brother here too.”

Ash’s eyes widened. He’d been standing to the side, as if he expected not to be a part of this, but when called he walked over, cautiously putting his paw on his mother’s bump. The unsure look on his face morphed into a very sure look as he did so and, looking up, his eyes met those of his father.

Standing up again, Mr Fox turned to the crowd. “I don’t know who this new mammal is going to be, but I’m looking forward to meeting him…”

“-Or her,” Ash pointed out.

“Or her. But I will tell you this. We’ll be starting to learn soon enough, and it’ll be a fantastic day when we can.” He turned, and put a paw on Ash’s shoulder, taking the younger fox by surprise. “I already had the privilege of meeting one fantastic Kit this way, who I can’t be more proud of. Indeed, I have it on good authority that you’ve finished your comic with your cousin, isn’t that right?”

“Y-Yeah,” Ash stammered out, and as a round of claps and cheers rang out he looked like he was stunned with joy. In the crowd, Nick couldn’t help but give him a wink and a thumbs up.

“Anything to say,” Mrs Fox said, smiling as she leant forwards, holding one of his paws.

The kit nodded intently. “Y-y-yeah… I… I…” He paused, took a deep breath in to compose himself, and then scanned around, his eyes resting on a mammal standing next to the present pile. “Kris did half the work too.”

It was the silver fox’s turn to take the applause, which he did graciously. Mr Fox, looking on, clapped hard before pausing slightly, an odd look on his muzzle. Clearing his throat, he carried on talking. “In any case, our family, my wife especially, is about to reembark on a hard but rewarding path. It’s great to see so many of you here, with an ample supply of gifts. Now, will they snap away any colic and gives us restful nights? The likely answer is no. But I’m certain that we can take solace and happiness in what you’ve provided us with.” He paused, looking around, before his eyes focused on William Silverfox. He’d been standing at the other side of the room to his son. “We happen to have with us today the uncle of this new child, who I believe has a very special gift for us. You have it on you, correct?”

“Well, it’s in the pile,” he began.

“Fair enough,” Mr Fox said quickly. “And being such a fine gift, how about we save it until last? A final high note, upon which to end these festivities.”

“That sounds good,” he replied.

Mr Fox nodded, before scanning around, spotting Nick. “How about the ZPD’s own Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps to begin with.”

Looking to Judy and winking, they made their way to the pile and picked up their presents, taking them over. Mrs Fox looked on and smiled at them, gasping at the size of the bunny’s contribution.

“Are all bunnies like this?” she asked.

“Not all of them,” Nick joked, before looking over his shoulder. “What did you bring, Jack?”

“A thing,” he said, shrugging as he went and picked up his present, a wrapped box. Mrs Fox looked at him curiously.

“I think you’re a stranger.”

“I think the correct term is ‘a friend of a friend’,” he pointed out, dropping his singular box down. “I just wanted to help.”

“Well, the kindness of strangers is well documented,” she mused, before reaching over and opening Judy’s box. She gasped as she took in all the clothes and books, while the sight of all the stuffed toys made her shiver up, her ears trembling. “All these,” she whispered, “for my little Kit.”

“My family was happy to help out,” Judy said proudly, before being taken into a hug by Mrs Fox.

“Your family has my many thanks,” she whispered, before letting her go. “I’m… I’m sorry, I’m a bit emotional now,” she said, patting her stomach. “She’s…”

“-Or he's,” Ash pointed out.

“Working me all up inside,” Mrs Fox carried on, before leaning over and filtering through all the stuffed bunnies. “But when he or she is sleeping, he’ll have all these friends to keep him warm, and…” She suddenly cut herself off, before pulling out a stuffed fox in a green shirt and tie, her gaze moving over to a smirking Nick.

“If it was my husband and I who did this, I’d know who’s to blame,” Felicity said, a bit of sass in her voice. “And not just because I know I wasn’t.”

“Would you believe me if I said I had no part in this,” Nick defended.

“I think not,” she said, smiling as she shook her head.

“What about if I said it, Felicity?” Judy said, the older vixen taking the news with a hint of surprise.

“Well, I think I would then,” she said, smiling. “Thanks a lot, for all of this.”

“You’re welcome,” Judy said, as Nick stepped up.

Felicity took his present and opened it, her eyes widening as she unwrapped a set of small chew toys. A salmon, a dory, a clownfish and a swordfish. There were also two clip attachments and some rubber bell things.

“May I?” Nick asked.

“You may.”

He cleared his throat, before giving his own speech. “What does every little fox kit want? An escape to his little wild side, something fun and interactive to chew on, something to take away the pain of teething. A something designed for him. A something called ‘the super chew set deluxe’. Okay, these are some freezer friendly chew toys that can hold the cold for hours, providing maximum teething relief while still being squeaky.” He squeezed one, a loud squeak coming out, to prove his point. “Now, you say you can’t stop a baby putting muck in his mouth, well I say you can.” He screwed one of the plastic bell things on and over one of the toys, covering it. He showed how it could be rolled back, letting the kit chew the toy, but would snap back to position after. “Bam. There it is, instant anti germ action. Now, it comes with various clips to attach it to clothing, a three-year guarantee, and is recommended by the Zootopia dental association over pacifiers for aiding in proper palate and tooth growth for little preds. Now, I think this is a perfect little gift for our new foxy. Do you think it’s the perfect little gift for our new little foxy?”

“With a sales pitch like that I could hardly say no, could I,” she said, holding them up and stroking one. “It’s certainly got all the bells and whistles. Thanks so much.”

“You’re welcome,” Nick said, before backing off. He looked on curiously as Jack presented his gift. Carefully, Mrs Fox unwrapped it, before pausing at what she saw.

“It’s a box.”

Jack held himself up tall. “I think you’ll find it’s an official ‘baby box’, designed with foxes in mind.”

Mrs Fox looked at him curiously, before taking the lid off, gasping at what she saw inside. “It’s… it’s… it’s fantastic,” she whispered. There were all sorts of supplies in there, including a basic mix of clothing, some medical stuff, a few books, toys, a blanket and some changing supplies. She held up the soft blanket first, decorated with a forest scene full of autumnal trees, evergreens, pinecones, flowers and birds, the odd river running through. It was fluffy and warm, and the vixen couldn’t help but massage it with her pads. “This is wonderful,” she whispered, before putting it down. Most of the other things had the same forest motif. There were clothes, some with a cartoon fox mascot on it in forest ranger gear, or little fox kits out and playing. She was smitten with all of them.

She moved over to the changing supplies, pausing as she held the plain cloth diapers, reading the description with an unconvinced look on her muzzle. “A two-part system for saving money and preventing leaks. Both the cloth diapers and the waterproof covers, usable with disposables too, use pull cords on the legs, waist and tail holes to ensure a safe and secure fit…” She put it down and shrugged, placing the white cloths to the side. “Well, always good to have an emergency reserve, I guess…” she mused, before pausing as she saw the covers. Each one was unique, and had the same mix of cartoon foxes or forest scenes, and even a few with an archery theme. The same smitten look the blanket and clothes had given her washed over her face and she smiled, turning down to her bump. “Though you’ll look adorable in these,” she said. “And I’m pretty sure they’ll offer very good blowout protection. We can’t have you messing all these pretty things, can we?”

Judy nodded, before nudging up to Jack. “Old family technique?”

He looked at her, confused. “I don’t know,” he said with a shrug. “I just got a thing to cover all the bases.”

Whatever Judy was about to say was cut off by a squee from Felicity, the vixen reaching into the box and sniffing slightly. “It’s the one from the…” she began, before cutting herself off. “I think I’ve just found my baby’s favorite toy,” she said, as she pulled out a large plush. It was made out of the same material that the blanket was, but it had been made into an adorable toy hyena, dressed in a black jacket over a red and black striped shirt. “He even has the three little snaggle teeth.”

“Aaaah,” Nick cooed. “You found one of those,” he said, turning to Jack.

…

“Jack?”

The bunny, looking like his brain had crashed, looked up to Nick. “I just left the ‘stuffed species’ selection button on ‘random’…” he said, before looking over to see an equally confused Skye. She shrugged her shoulders back, and Jack looked over to see Mrs Fox rubbing the toy against the sides of her head, marking it vigorously. “There, there… You’ll keep all my kits safe, won’t you Mr…” She paused, trying to remember the name.

“Haida the hyena,” Ash spoke up, smiling as he leant over and fiddled with its tail.

Jack bit his lower lip hard and looked behind him. Skye’s head being tilted close to ninety degrees was to be expected; the slight tilt on Kris’s head was an added bonus. Regardless, his train wreck of confusion was broken off as Felicity called his name.

“Jack, wasn’t it?”

“Uh, yes… About the plush…”

“It’s gorgeous,” she said, sniffing a little. She cradled it into one arm, while waving him over, bringing him into a hug.

“This is nice,” he noted.

“Thanks,” she said, looking at him and giving him a kiss on the forehead. “This was ever so generous, especially from a stranger. You’re Skye’s boyfriend, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Well,” she said, smiling. “She picked a very thoughtful and kind bunny.”

He let go, and the three of them walked back to Skye. Nick and Judy were happy, Jack was beginning to tremble with glee, while the swift fox was giving them a look akin to the one Nick gave when Mr. Big befriended Judy. “Um. That doll…” she began.

Jack cut her off, looking like a kit on a sugar rush. “That was amazing… What have I been missing, Skye? What have I been missing all those times I didn’t go the extra mile… Oh god, there’s so many other things outside of acting…”

“Calm down there, Jack,” Judy warned.

“-This is what you feel, isn’t it?” he asked, turning to her.

“Guys, about that plushie…” Skye began, nervously.

Nick turned to the vixen, confused. “What about it? I’ve seen ones like it before.”

 _“-All those times when you talked about wanting to be a cop, making the world a better place_ …”

Skye looked on, confused, while her boyfriend kept on gushing to Nick’s girlfriend.

“-Jack, I need your help,” she said, cutting him off.

“Of course!” he agreed, snapping to attention. “Where, what, how…?”

Nick backed off a bit, giving Judy a sly look. This would be fun to watch. He was broken off though by a tap on his shoulder, and he turned around to see an opossum standing there.

“Nick Wilde?” he asked.

“The one and only.”

He nodded. “Foxy wants a quick word about you about something important. Mind coming with me?”

Nick nodded, before letting himself get led off. He walked down the stairs into the kitchen, before going through a room at the back of the house and into the earth. He knew the place had some extensive basements, but he was curious as to where he’d be going.

“In there, sit down,” the opossum said, as Nick was led into a pitch-black room. His night vision managed to make out a chair though, and he sat himself down.

…

“Um… Hello?”

There was a flash of light as a desk lamp was turned on, Nick blinking from the glare, and, as his vision recovered, he realized that he was inside Mr Fox’s office. Mr Fox, sitting in his own chair, a desk tray with a microphone of all things on top of it, was right in front of him.

“Let me just…” he began, tapping the microphone, the reverbing sound coming out of some speakers somewhere. “Testing, testing…”

Nick looked nervously from side to side. “What the…”

“Ahem,” Mr Fox announced, looking towards Nick, his paws going palm against palm and the fingers meshing with each other. “Before we begin, let me start with a simple hook in order to get across the seriousness of this situation, and ensure that you’ll be craving everything I say after. Nicholas Wilde, this baby shower is spiraling towards complete disaster, and only you can help me save it.”

.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

.

.

.

"Nicholas Wilde, this baby shower is spiraling towards complete disaster, and only you can help me save it.”

…

“I repeat,” Mr Fox announced, hunkering low over his microphone. “Only you can…”

“-You know, I did hear you the first time,” Nick interrupted.

“Potentially, yes,” Mr Fox pondered. “Though with the length of the pause in between…”

“ _Pfff_ … It wasn’t that long,” the fox cop defended.

“Well, it wasn’t a dramatic pause…”

…

“-That was a dramatic pause. Anyway, your pause might have felt long to some people, though maybe not to others. Maybe to some it felt like five minutes, maybe to some like a week and a bit.”

“-I don’t feel like I went to sleep and suffered through seven long mornings,” Nick replied, finding his voice. He shook his head, clearing his mind, before speaking it. “It’s just that this feels a bit overblown and dramatic; you know…” He crossed his arms, and leaned forwards a bit. “-I mean, if you have a little thing that needs fixing, most mammals who are not compensating for something tend to go for a little tap on the shoulder.”

Mr Fox paused, looking back over at Nick. “I’ll ignore your potential slight on the bushiness of my tail and get straight to business,” he said. “It seems that my dramatic flair hasn’t convinced you already of the danger we’re facing, so we’ll have to montage.”

“Mon…” Nick began, before Mr Fox leant forwards, grabbed his chair, and swiveled them both around to face his desk. On it was a section drawing of the house, showing each and every room, many filled with markers that had been labelled with names. On the board in front of them were a variety of pinned pictures, string and noting paper ready to turn it into a fully-fledged conspiracy board. At the very centre was a sheet with four big letters drawn on it.

 _Dr Silverfox’s present_.

_MISSING!_

.

 _Time seemed to rewind, back to when the fox in question had arrived. Leaving his son outside with his cousin, he walked in with Nick and Judy, holding his gift against his heart with his arm. They were immediately greeted by Mr Fox_.

“I was first made aware of him carrying the gift, and gained a good view of it, on his arrival. His posture and possessive nature seemed to show that it was something of value, something he confirmed as he spoke up about it in a very high-level tone.”

_“Congratulations, again,” he said._

_“Certainly appreciated,” Mr Fox smirked, before glancing over at his wife. “As it will be by her.”_

_“Indeed,” the Doctor agreed, jostling his gift up against himself. “Tonight should be a wonderful night for her.”_

“Of course, this was then confirmed by a conversation I overheard from afar.”

_“My gift is very much related to her too,” he said, trailing off a little. “As I said, something very dear, and very precious.”_

_Nick nodded in agreement while, from afar, Mr Fox spotted the gift safely nestled in the pile._

“My wife took the loss of her sister very hard,” he carried on narrating. “She’d swing between holding on dearly to her own young son and staring out into the black expanse of the night, contemplating the meaning and existentially nihilistic nature of our sentient mammalian condition…”

_Mr Fox walked out of his house, making his way towards a small grassy knoll. It was late at night, even the lights of the city being repulsed by the cover of darkness, and the Todd looked upon the hunched up figure of his wife. Curled up in nothing but her thin white nightie, her son, dressed in a paw-pad covered footed sleeper, was fast asleep in her chest. She slowly pet him while staring up into the inky void._

_“Need any help, comfort…”_

_“-Strawberries,” she sobbed._

_“Okay then, strawberries it is…”_

_“-She adored them… -she once ate three punnets and was sick all over me…” She broke down into tears and lunged forwards, holding Mr Fox tight. “She’s… She’s gone!” she wailed, as he held her back._

“Therefore, this gift would have a high value to her, in effect being the keystone to this entire night,” Mr Fox continued. “And then, fatefully, I noticed that there had been, quote-unquote… **-a Larceny!** ”

_It was the silver fox’s turn to take the applause, which he did graciously. As Kris bowed, Mr Fox looked over to him, before flicking to the gift pile next to him. He paused, noticing that the present he’d seen getting put down there was now gone._

“Of course, some quick confirming was then in order.”

_His eyes focused on William Silverfox, who’d been standing at the other side of the room to his son. “We happen to have with us today the uncle of this new child, who I believe has a very special gift for us. You have it on you, correct?”_

_“Well, it’s in the pile,” he began._

_“Fair enough,” Mr Fox said quickly, buying himself some further time. “And being such a fine gift, how about we save it until last. A final high note, upon which to end these festivities.”_

“And then one final emergency check.”

_As Nick, Judy and Jack presented their presents, Mr Fox wandered over to the gift pile and scanned through it, seeing no evidence of the critical gift. His eyes narrowed and he glanced around the room before he located Kylie. He walked up to him, tapped his shoulder, and whispered in his ear. “Down to the office. We have to do a thing.”_

_“A thing? You mean a thing, thing?”_

_“That’s right. A THING.”_

“And so,” Mr Fox carried on, back in the present. “We have our situation. One important gift: taken. A variety of suspects: milling about, all with potential motives and reasons. I alone can’t do this task, but I have the utmost trust in your abilities to help out. Together, we need to locate this gift and return it to the pile tonight in order to save this baby shower!”

…

“Right,” Nick agreed, “Gotcha. You know, this only seems a little insane and overcompensating now. Well done, ten-out-of-ten on presentation by the way.” He paused, before smiling. “You’ve done this kind of thing before, haven’t you?”

“In my more wild and youthful days, certainly. High stakes planning for high stakes action.”

“Only, oopsie, you’re married and have a family, so now the scale of this stuff has gone just a biiiittt…. Downhill. Again, a tap on the shoulder and a quick request would have done the job.”

“Well, there’s doing the job and then there’s _doing the job_ ,” Mr Fox enthused, gesturing to everything. “Sure, I could have simply asked you to help out, but that might not fully sell you on the seriousness of the situation.”

“Oh, don’t you worry, you’ve sold me on something,” Nick replied, smirking.

“And likewise, I could just take the expected, ‘ _sensible_ ’, option and inform everyone and have everyone search for it. But that would mean facing a derailed party, informing everyone of the incident, while potentially causing emotional harm to those invested in the gift. In particular, one currently facing immense emotional instability. On the other paw, doing this on the sly in a highly planned and well executed operation could set things right with nobody knowing.”

“So, to sum up, you want me to help you on an undercover investigation to find our gift thief, keeping everything secret until we locate the missing present.”

“As sum ups go, that’s certainly a cussing good one,” Mr Fox agreed, turning around and grabbing Nick’s paws, looking him in the eyes. “Nicholas Wilde. As I said before, the only other mammal I know with the right level of cunning, slyness and, as the younger generations know it, quote-unquote ‘pizzaz’, to pull this off is you. So, Nicholas Wilde, are! You! IN!?”

“I…” Nick began, his mouth trembling slightly. He paused for a second or two before sighing, his ears folding down. “Nope. I’m sorry, but I’m out.”

Mr Fox cleared his throat a little, before pushing on, even bringing in the paw gestures. “Let me reiterate, you are the only one I judge to have the right skills to pull this off. I repeat, I can’t do this without you!”

“Yes, I get that,” Nick sighed, shaking his head a little as he rubbed it with his paw. “But here’s the thing. I used to be sneaky and sly and all that and, back then, maybe I’d have been happy to help you out. Though, at the same time, I don’t think I’d have really been good enough to be your friend, but that’s a different story… -Anyway, that kind of thing is what I’ve been trying to get away from, to leave behind, and while you seem happy to revel in your past self, I’m not. I’d be more than happy to help if you make the search official, have everyone doing a look around and getting this all sorted quickly, I promise. But sneaking around and doing stuff to friends and family behind their backs? I’m sorry, but I have to say no.”

…

“Very well then,” Mr Fox cordially agreed, “it was very good not doing business with you.”

Despite feeling down, Nick couldn’t help but smile, a glint of fun in his eyes. “It’s called a not-hustle, Foxy,” he said, as he stood up and walked out.

“Not-Hustle…” Mr Fox pondered. “I like that term…” He paused, and looked up at Nick. “No hard feelings if you keep this a secret.”

“That I can do” Nick agreed as he left, passing Kylie on the way out.

…

“Well,” he noted, walking back up the stairs to the lounge. “That was something…”

Entering in, he found a place to settle down and work out everything that had just happened. He couldn’t help but let his gaze linger on the present pile as he did so and, yup, the gift in question was gone. Sauntering up for a closer look, he couldn’t find it anywhere. So, Mr Fox was right, but Nick still couldn’t agree with his plan of action. His days as a hustler had taught him that the simplest plans were often the best ones, and doing all that secret stuff would just be inviting trouble.

He expected Mr Fox to come up and start asking around publicly sooner than later.

In the meantime, he could keep an eye out and enjoy the party. Looking over, he saw Skye moving up to Mrs Fox with two gifts. He didn’t know how exactly the vixen knew the family, but this could be a way to learn.

“And these are from me,” she said, as she handed over her presents. Mrs Fox opened the first one and smiled as she brought out a pretty dream catcher mobile. “My mother said that it’s supposed to keep bad dreams and the Thunderbird away,” Skye explained.

“Thank you,” Felicity replied, before turning to the other gift; opening it up before humming slightly, intrigued as she pulled out an old-style polaroid camera.

“Complete with plenty of film supplies, it’ll let you easily assemble a physical album with all your kit’s pictures in it.”

Mrs Fox smiled. “I had one of these which I used when Ash was young, but I lost it ages ago. Thanks so much.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, as Jack wandered up next to her. He looked excited.

“Idea!”

Nick couldn’t help himself. “No, it’s a camera.”

Jack glanced at him and smirked, before gesturing to Mrs Fox’s camera. Handing it over, the jackrabbit stepped back and took a picture, smiling as he saw the little picture print out. “A before picture!”

“Thanks again,” she said smiling, taking them back. Skye gave Jack a proud look, before she handed over another gift.

“This is Sweetie’s,” she explained, as Mrs Fox looked pulled out a golden ring. “It’s supposed to be a Korean tradition, the child can use it to pay for their education later.”

The pregnant vixen nodded as Kris and his father meandered over. “Who’s Sweetie?” the younger fox asked.

Mrs Fox looked over at her nephew and smiled. “She’s my friend and Skye’s sister,” she explained, before sighing. “Remember the story I told you, about why I left the Rangers?”

“Someone you trained with was picked off by an eagle, wasn’t he?”

Felicity nodded slowly and sadly, looking away as she did so. “Yes, Sweetie was his partner. She… -She tried to find his body, but all they ever got was an eye. We met at the funeral and became friends…” There was a pause, then a slight huff. “You know, I still think about poor Bright Eyes even now.”

The somber mood carried through the room, only broken off as Dr Silverfox stepped forwards. “Bright Eyes?”

“It was his nickname,” she explained.

The silver fox nodded. “Was his name Hyhayuhl, by any chance?”

Felicity looked up, a shocked look on her face. “How did you…”

“He was a hare, or rather an Efrafan hare, wasn’t he?” he continued, as she nodded. “Hyhayuhl translates to bright eyes, or thereabouts. When I was a student doing my research into their culture and history in Cappadocia and Greater Armyeenia, it was one of the most common names you’d stumble across.”

“So, you’re a doctor of archeology?” Skye asked.

“Well, languages and linguistics,” he explained, smiling contently as he thought back. “Back then, I was part of a team investigating a temple complex called Nildelienes, buried in the foothills of Mt Ararat itself. The iron curtain had finally fallen, and we could travel to Armyeenia to look at the site, finally giving it the care that it deserved.”

“What had happened to it before?” Kris asked, curiously.

“Despite having a strong connection to Efrafa, their people despised it. They’d tried to destroy and bury it when they could, succeeding after the repulse of Gabrielli the Thunderer’s Cossack invaders by the war hero Thlayli. The Efrafans say that it was built by death worshipers. It venerates ‘Kehaar’, their version of the devil, so I can’t really fault them there. Centuries later the Tsar’s forces made an entranceway to it, thinking it might be Noah’s Ark, and when it wasn’t they took most of the precious valuables before sealing it again. We were the first to try and fully catalogue everything, and they needed me as it seemed to have its own language. It turned out to be Efrafan in a different script though.” There was a pause, and then a chuckle. “It turned out that ‘Bright Eyes’ was the secret to unlocking it all.”

“How come?” Felicity asked.

“Well, the name comes from a popular and ancient Efrafan folk song. It’s a mother’s lament about her strong son going off to war, called by visions, and how he, whose bright eyes, which once burned brightly, could just fade and die.” He paused, and cleared his throat slightly, before singing out.

_“Is it a kind of dream, floating down on the tide,_

_Following the river of death downstream,_

_Ohhh-oh, is it a dream?_

_There’s a fog on the horizon,_

_A strange glow in the sky,_

_And nobody seems to know where it goes,_

_Or what does it mean…_

_Ohhh-oh, is it a dream?”_

He stopped, shrugging. “I’m afraid my translation doesn’t quite live up to the original. Anyhow, the most common prayer in Nildelienes turned out to be a straight up translation, albeit with a few very small tweaks to the chorus. Instead of: _Bright eyes, how can you close and fail?_ it’s: _Bright eyes, you shall never close and fail_ . Then, instead of _How can the light that burned so brightly, suddenly burn so pale,_ they swapped the suddenly for ‘furiously’ and the pale for a word we don’t have in English, but it means ‘corpse pale’ or ‘deathly pale’. It changes the whole meaning of the song, making it a hymn to Kehaar and death… Regardless, once I worked that out, it was very easy to translate everything else.”

Nick walked forwards, smiling. “That’s certainly interesting. Any other stories and such from back then?"

William paused, thinking. “Oh, plenty… -Though, I think the favorite one is what I did with my English translation of the original ‘Bright eyes’ about ten years later.” He paused, turning to Felicity and smiling. “I’d translated it and worked out how to play it on my guitar, and we were back in Canidea on this big ski trip organized by the department. We were in the lodge, it was a loud night with everyone else drinking and laughing and I just felt a little overwhelmed. There was some Karaoke going on, most mammals belting out Bryan A’Dams or such, and I’d made the mistake of not letting go of my guitar. So, soon enough, I was egged on to the stage and I was up there, with no idea what exactly to sing out as this seemed to definitely be an electric crowd, not acoustic. But… -Well, I don’t know why, but I sung out my translation of ‘Bright Eyes’, and by the end I think you could hear a pin drop. Then everyone was clapping and, as I knew ‘Who by Fire’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’, I did those too. Then, off I went, feeling a bit flustered. I was sat outside, in the snow, getting cold and just trying to recover from _that_ when I felt someone slip a ski jacket onto me.” He paused, sighing a little, before gently holding Felicity’s paw. “She stammered out, half gushed praise at my singing and half scolding me for being out in the cold, and she managed to take me back inside… And that was how I met your sister.”

The vixen choked up a little. “I remember her calling after. She’d always been a very female-leaning Bi before, but she was gushing over _this_ todd that she’d just met and his voice, and about whether she loved him or not…”

“She did,” Dr Silverfox said, his voice full of melancholy. “She always liked it when I sung to her… -Kris did too!”

“I remember that,” the younger fox said, smiling.

“Yeah, but ‘Bright Eyes’ never was your favorite,” he said, chuckling a little. “There was always one song that would cheer you and make you laugh, and I had to stop singing it or playing the CD at night because you’d just be bouncing up and down to it.”

Kris nodded. “I only remember it roughly,” he said. “Haven’t heard it for years.”

By the time he realized his terrible mistake, it was already far too late, as Dr Silverfox began singing.

_“Where the road runs down by the butternut grove, to old Bill Skinner’s stream._

_Do tell at the noonday bell it’s time for a summertime dream.”_

He smiled, before leaning in and cradling Kris’s muzzle with his finger.

_“In a lunch pail town in a one-horse way, you can live like a king or queen._

_Let’s steal away in the noonday sun, it’s time for a summertime dream.”_

Kris looked around, his ears folding back, and a hint of redness in them growing stronger.

_“Birds in all creation will be twitterin’ in the trees, and down below’s a pond I know, you can swim in it if you please._

_And if you come ‘round when the mill shuts down, you can see what chivalry means._

_Let’s steal away in the noonday sun, it’s time for a summertime dream.”_

He broke off and laughed, looking at the flustered look on his son. “You know, I didn’t think you were one to get embarrassed.”

“Uhhh,” he began to reply, just as Ash turned up, looking at William.

“You did that? To him? That’s possible?” he asked, not quite believing it himself.

Kris broke down into a little guffaw, walking forwards to hug his father. “I remember it now,” he said, a happy mood in his voice. A mood shared by all, until a soft sniff broke through. Everyone turned, looking at Mrs Fox.

“Mom?” Ash asked, walking forwards, as she tried to wipe away a tear.

“Y-You were too young,” she said, looking at him. “But she… Roz… She sung that over the phone to me once… We were sharing lullabies, and… and…” She never finished her sentence, breaking off as the tears began flowing. Whimpering and sobbing, she bent over, cradling her bump. “You… you… you’ll never know her…” she cried. “Your… your spunky Auntie, you’ll… You’ll never hear her laugh, or… or… play with her, or…“

Ash went to her side, as did Kris and Skye, who asked Jack to help steadier her as she dropped both crutches, letting her put both paws on the distraught vixen. However, it was her brother-in-law that that got through to her.

“There, there,” he said. “I miss her too. But whoever is in there will get to know Auntie Rozie, I promise.”

“You… You do?”

“Yes,” he replied, smiling. “I’ve got just the gift to help with that.”

“Y-you do?” she asked.

“Well, I’d be like you are now if I didn’t… Well, I wouldn’t know what I’d do,” he said, laughing a bit. “But I do have something precious, I promise…”

The scene went quiet, as everyone looked on.

Including Nick.

He looked away, ears folding back, and rubbed his foot paw onto the floor. A wave of conflicting feelings and emotions ran through him, before he sighed, silently dismissing himself. Down into the stairway he went, walking through the kitchen and into the back rooms and basements, before opening the door to Mr Fox’s study. “Right. I’ll do it!”

“-I repeat, I can’t do this without you!”

Everyone froze, as Nick looked on to see Mr Fox, in chair with microphone, giving his opossum friend the low down.

“-And you too,” he carried on, greeting Nick and waving him in. “Nick Wilde, Kylie O’Possum. Kylie O’Possum, Nick Wilde.”

“You know,” the fox cop warned. “This is already looking more and more like the kind of British comedy where we just dig ourselves a deeper and deeper hole and end up humiliating ourselves.”

“Well, I’ve been thoroughly Americanized so I can proudly confirm that we’ll still come out on top,” Mr Fox replied. “Anyway, you in?”

“Before I regret it, yes.” Nick said, grabbing a seat and sitting next to Mr Fox. He gave a brief glance to Kylie as well, noting that the marsupial wore a beige fisherman’s hat with a few hooks and lures attached, a white shirt mostly covered by a beige fisherman’s vest with large outside pockets and a matching pair of shorts. 

“Very well,” Foxy began. “First step, we each pick two potential suspects and interview them, trying to figure out if they’re up to something.”

“Sounds fair,” Nick replied. “So, who are they and what are their profiles?”

Mr Fox snapped his fingers, before winking. “Montage time!”

.

.

“Suspect one. Badger Badgerson,” Mr Fox announced, a picture of a grumpy badger in a green woolen suit, white shirt and salmon tie getting pinned up to the wall.

“What’s the MO?” Nick asked.

“He’s my lawyer, and…”

“-Yeah, that’ll do it. Next.”

.

.

“Suspect two, our mysterious visitor: Jack Savage.” A picture of the striped buck in a blue shirt and tan shorts went up on the wall.

“Yeaaaahhhhhnnoooooo,” Nick countered, shaking his head. “How much do you know him?”

“Well, from our brief encounter it’s clear that he’s a thespian with a flair for showing off, and one who can get quite competitive when the time arises.”

“Which is odd,” the fox cop pointed out. “From what I’ve known of him, he’s a theatre-lover and performer, but other than that he’s a lazy bone, a messy slob, and a mammal who’s trying to change that and do good. Why would he steal this gift?”

“Well, what is the gift?” Mr Fox asked.

“Something to do with your late sister-in-law,” Nick pondered. “-Might have something to do with Efrafan culture or something, I don’t…” He trailed off a bit, his eyes widening as he walked over to the board, closing them again and beating out his finger to the tune of his thoughts. “Some ancient script? A collection of stuff? He’s a Tehuantepec Jackrabbit, which might have a relation to Efrafans, I don’t know…”

“Kylie,” Mr Fox announced, before looking down at the opossum. “Zoogle geographic positions of Tehuantepecs, Efrafans, their relations to each other and any long-lost tomes that might be present.”

He nodded, before pausing. “I know you said Zoogle, but I prefer Zing… Is Zinging it okay?”

“You can Zong it for all I care,” Mr Fox added, before turning back to Nick. “What was that about trying to do good?”

“He’s trying to improve himself, get less lazy and such. It’s why he came and gave your wife a baby box.”

“Hmmm…” Mr Fox pondered. “Could he be taking the book only to give it back later? Some long-winded plot to make an even happier ending, but building up tension before-paw I wonder.”

“Whatever you’re thinking, he won’t be thinking it,” Nick countered. “Him doing this as part of some experimental field improv is more likely. And that was sarcasm, by the way.”

“But there’s still a chance,” Mr Fox returned, as Kylie finished.

“Efrafans are a warrior culture of otherwise normal Eurasian hares from Pawasia Minor. Tehuantepec Jackrabbits are an endangered species of lagomorphs from a small Isthmus on the pacific coast of Mexicat, a place with no notable Efrafan communities.”

“So, unlikely,” Foxy continued. “Though a slim chance is still a chance, so I’d class him as a wildcard.”

“Yup,” Nick admitted. “Might as well see if we can clear him, even though I can’t see him doing this. Next!”

.

.

Mr Fox pinned the picture of the scruffy red fox kit, in this case still dressed in his unusual ‘white pj’s with a cape and the trousers tucked into socks’ combo, to the wall, before turning to see Nick looking at him, his eyelids half lidded. 

“That’s cold.”

“Just keeping all options open,” he defended, before pulling out another photograph and placing it alongside Ash’s. “In any case, no favoritism, they’re both there.” He pointed at the picture of Kris, in the usual dusty blue button up shirt and tan shorts combo that he was wearing tonight, and gave a double whistle, two tongue clicks and a wink.

“Well,” Nick said with a sigh. “I suppose both of them could be trying to do the ‘increased yield’ hustle you thought Jack might be up to.”

“See,” Mr Fox said, nodding. “And, though both seemed to have patched everything up, there might still be a bit of inter-cousin rivalry going on.”

“Ash seemed too concerned about his mother to try and steal the gift. Besides, why not go for Kris’ gift, unless… -Unless he wants to find the book later to be seen as the hero.”

Mr Fox nodded. “Though he’s already given up the full limelight, sharing some with Kris when it was due.”

Nick smirked, looking at Foxy. “My, my… Acknowledging your boy. I’m proud of you, great progress!”

“Fantastic, if you will,” Mr Fox said, scanning over the pictures. “But he might see this as a ‘nobody loses thing’, I don’t know. As for Kris, maybe it’s some attempt to frame Ash, and let me just stop you right there, Nick. I know it’s super unlikely for both of them, given their ultimately very high moral fiber. I’m simply following the same ‘don’t rule it out’ principle that we, primarily I, have previously established.”

“Yeah, okay,” Nick replied, nodding his head a little. “Anyway, who’s next?”

.

.

A sandy colored swift fox vixen, in a dusty red t-shirt with black bands on the sleeves and camo cargo pants down below, went up onto the board. “Skye Autumn.”

“Well, if it weren’t for the fact that I’ve seen really dodgy mammals hiding behind a helpful and ditzy veneer, I’d completely dismiss Miss High-and-mighty,” Nick replied. “But, as it is, she might have a secret dark side that none of us know about.”

“Yes,” Mr Fox said, pondering. "So the perfect reason to list her as a subject then."

Nick blinked a bit. “You know, my job does take me places and might give me ideas above my station,” he said, walking over. “But you can’t really put someone up there without having evidence linking them, or a motive. With Skye, from you at least, nil-pwa!’”

“And from you?” Foxy countered, a smirk growing on his muzzle.

Nick sighed and rolled his eyes. “Okay. Besides doing the same ‘be the hero’ hustle, there is a _potential_ strong motive here which I can think of. Skye’s sister was a ranger. Her partner was ‘Bright Eyes’, an Efrafan Hare who was killed by an eagle. Said sister then met your wife at the funeral. Maybe she knew of something or other that was taken from him, or his family, or his people, and ended up in William’s paws? I don’t know how, I’m not sure how she’d know. Maybe she just suspects that it’s something related, but asked Skye to take it regardless. Maybe not to steal, just to check, and then steal if it is the thing…”

Mr Fox looked on proud. “Nick Wilde, that is some pure A-grade motive analysis. You are a great cop.”

“I… -Thanks, I guess,” he replied, before looking back at the picture and frowning. “However, if Skye is our suspect, then there’s a _slight_ mobility issue.”

Mr Fox nodded. “Though maybe that’s why Jack is here?” he said, “To do the legwork – pun not intended.”

“Wittingly or unwittingly?” Nick carried on. He was broken off though by Kylie.

“What if it’s a fake cast?”

Both foxes turned to face him, Foxy flashing a smile. “Excellent concept. A fake disability to throw us off the trail. Well done for contributing, and reminding us that you’re there, noted friend and partner.”

“Still, unless she can remove that cast, it’ll still slow her down,” Nick pointed out, as he thought things through. “Could she have a removable one?”

“We’d have to check it,” Foxy said, nodding his head in agreement. “But how?”

“Does it have any signatures on it?” Kylie asked. “I could go in and try to sign it, getting a closer look.”

Mr Fox couldn’t help but clap his paws in excitement. “Kylie, you are on fire tonight. Right then, only one more suspect to deal with.”

.

.

Nick glowered at the wall. “No.”

“It’s just as likely as the others.”

“Nope.”

“We’re trying to keep ourselves open here, aren’t we?”

“The answer is still null. Void. Nada. Zero.”

“I understand that this might be a bit sensitive to you…”

“No. It’s in the realms of impossibility,” Nick said, speaking up. “Judy Hopps is NOT our gift thief.” He looked over to the newspaper clipping of her (in her ZPD dress blues no less) that Mr Fox had put up on the wall and pulled it down.

“And how do you know that?” Mr Fox asked.

“Because I know her.”

“Or do you now,” he pondered. “Because maybe you don’t. Maybe you…”

“Why would she even do it?” he asked.

“The same motive that Ash might have – or Jack. Manufacture a crisis and be seen as the hero who fixes it. Being the big hero for every mammal is her _modus operandi_ , isn’t it?”

“If I were a sucker for glory and respect, musing from an armchair like _moi_ , then potentially I could agree with that sentiment,” Nick countered, closing his eyes and holding himself astutely as he did so. “But am I one of those? No, no I am not. I am in fact her police partner and her boyfriend, and thus know that she’s dedicated to making the world a better place. Something that theft, oddly enough, doesn’t do.”

“And what if it was part of some covert mission to recover secretly stolen artifacts? Would she do such a thing for the greater good?”

“No, she’d end up tying herself in knots as she tried to figure out a way for everyone to win, sink into emotional squalor and ruin before crying into her foxy lover’s chest fur.”

“And if she’s forbidden from going to you?”

Nick sighed, leaning forwards and rubbing his forehead. “Then Bun dot E-X-E encounters an error and can’t continue. Listen, it’s not Judy. Heck, from a policemammal point of view, none of these even have a shred of evidence behind them. Some of those, no -all of them, are ridiculous. Heck, maybe even the lawyer guy too? I mean, what’s his problem?”

“Sowing internal strife in my family, attempting to formulate a divorce, in order to be the recipient of a mortgage on this property once we split, with the aim of ultimately repossessing it for himself.”

…

“Okay, so maybe we have one, semi-plausible, suspect.” Nick reasoned.

“Have you seen the way he looks at this house?” Mr Fox said, smiling a little before turning back to the suspect list. “Besides. Do you have any better ideas?”

…

Nick groaned, before shaking his head. “Right then. I guess we can run with it. The worst we’ll do is make fools of ourselves.”

“That’s the spirit!” Mr Fox agreed, gesturing them over to the schematic of his house, turning to Kylie as he did so. “Right. You talk to Kris, then perform your signing hustle thing on Skye, talking to her too. Both should be laying low in the lounge or outside, giving you easy access. While you’re doing that, I’ll make myself busy with Judy Hopps, in the same place, before then moving on to our prime suspect. I can take him up to show the expansion to the top room, while maybe discussing the possibilities of a further extension upwards or the potential for an external tree house annex. There’s already an escape hatch there, giving me a potential evacuation route.”

“-Your house has an escape hatch?” Nick asked.

“Multiple,” Mr Fox boasted proudly. “This was once a fine front for bootlegging into the Nocturnal District. There’s a tunnel linking up here to down there located right under this desk. A few years back Ash went through a phase of trying to clear it out. Anyhow, Nick Wilde, you get to take on Jack Savage, and then my son.”

Nick nodded. “Okay then…”

“I think this is a bit too important for just an okay,” Foxy noted. “Maybe try something a bit more enthusiastic?”

Kylie, stepping up, saluted. “Ready for action.”

“That’s the spirit,” Mr Fox replied, saluting back before turning to Nick.

Nick rolled his eyes, before giving a lazy salute too. “Ready to hustle.”

“That’s the spirit!” he said, and off the three went.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**.**

Stepping back into the main lounge, the three conspirators looked at each other and nodded before splitting up. Mr Fox immediately went towards Judy (the bunny dressed in a pink plaid shirt and dusty blue jeans and not her ZPD blues) smiling as he did so. He couldn't help but notice that she was talking to one of Badger's kids, the one who always wore a skeleton costume, in a very cute scene, even with the potential of cross fraternization between enemies.

"And… and I hear you got it all on record," he was saying, "with your special carrot pen!"

Smiling, Judy fished out the device in question, the cub bouncing up in excitement. "Can… -Can I touch it?"

"Here you go," she said, smiling as she passed it over into his trembling paws. He went giddy for a second or two, before thrusting it forwards and shouting out.

"You'll never get rid of us Predators you mean old sheep! We're super awesome, unlike you!"

Judy laughed. "It'd be a bit odd if I said that to her."

"Why's that?"

"Well, I'm a bunny, ain't I?"

He looked at her for a second or two, thinking it through, before his eyes widened and he giggled. "That would be silly. What did you say?"

"Well," she said, leaning in. She looked from left to right, and whispered it out. "I said: What are you going to do now, kill us? -And she said, 'Oh no, he is!"

"Was that Nick Wilde?"

"Yes, it was," she said. "She thought she'd hit him with one of the darts, but that clever fox had switched the nighthowlers for blueberries."

"He must be a clever fox," he said. "My dad said, 'well that was a clever fox.'"

"Oh, he's certainly very clever when he wants to be."

"Oh, so he's a massive idiot the rest of the time."

Judy was taken aback a little. "I wouldn't say a massive idiot, or the rest of the time."

"My daddy says Mr Fox is a massive idiot ALL the time."

Letting out a nervous laugh, she looked around, pausing as she saw Mr Fox looking at her. Their eyes met for a second or two and he nodded. He didn't care what Badger thought or taught his son, every mammal was entitled to their own wrong opinion.

"Well, that's what he thinks," she explained. "Everyone thinks things, and sometimes they're right, and sometimes they're wrong."

"You weren't wrong though."

She flinched back a little. "Well, I was wrong plenty of times," she said sadly, her ears drooping down. "When I didn't think things through and spoke too fast, and I said things that hurt other mammals."

"-But you weren't wrong about it being blueberries in the gun. Otherwise Nick would go all crazy and eat you. Nom-nom-nom-nom… Burp!"

That knocked her a bit, and she giggled. "Well, I was right then, and I was wrong other times. Just be careful and think about what you say and do, you don't want to go and hurt anyone by mistake." There was a pause and a smile. "After all, saying all the right things can do a lot of good. It was saying all the right things that got her to confess."

"You tricked her into telling all her plans, which you recorded here!" he said, holding out her pen and pressing the play button. The scratching of the internal record came out, before Judy's voice sprung into life.

" _Note to self…" she groaned._ " _Next time... pre-soak lentils… overnight… with baking soda or whatever… My insides feel like the mudbath at Mystic Springs Oasis…_ "

A knock on a door followed, as Nick whined out. " _Nice Taka Carrots…" he whimpered. "But D'AHL!"_

…

"Did you have a stomach ache?" the badger cub asked.

Shaking herself back to attention. "Did I? Yes, yes I did," she said.

He nodded. "I hate stomach aches."

"Me too," she replied, taking the pen back. The cub nodded before racing off, leaving the bunny to relax back down.

And for Mr Fox to make his move. "Pretty embarrassing, wasn't it?" he said, giving her a wink as he sat down next to her.

"Oh, I've had worse," she said, making sure to click her carrot pen and wipe the stored message. "Waaayyyy worse."

"And it must be far more humiliating given that you're such a mammal of grace, virtue and heroism. Looked up to by the common mammal as a shining example of what they can do."

"I wouldn't quite say that," she mused, turning to look at him. "I mean, everyone has a stomach ache or little goof all the time, don't they?"

"But it pulls them down a level of two, don't you think?" Mr Fox continued. "Consider the well renowned Angel of Horns, if you will. A shining and radiant peak of mammalian beauty, with a voice that can entertain millions, standing up on stage with a whole city enraptured by her. Every second you see her, she's working at a level high enough to draw up your gaze, acting in a way that makes you think of her as fantastic in every sense of the word. A simple greeting to the crowd can stir the heart and soul of millions, and she becomes an icon, not a mere normal mammal. Sure, in private she might have a stomach ache, or spill a hot drink on herself in a way that sets off an ungainly chain of random cussing, but you don't see that. And, if you did, wouldn't it break the illusion that she put her heart and soul to create?"

"I guess, for a bit," Judy said. "But then a day later, everything's back to normal. You're still Gazelle, you still have your music."

"But, you might not quite be this truly amazing and perfect mammal in everyone's eyes?" Mr Fox countered. He gave her a quick nudge. "I for one can testify to the effort needed to keep yourself at such a level."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, good thing I'm not interested in that."

"And what are you interested in, mayhaps?" he enquired.

"Well," she said, looking around before pointing out the cub she'd been talking to.

"That can have many worrying implications there, miss."

She looked at him and smirked. "You're sounding like Nick, you know that?"

"Well, he is a fantastic Fox. We do have certain things in common."

She nodded, before looking back out. "It's about cubs and kits and calfs like him," she said. "And other mammals, just living their lives. It's about making the world a better place for them. I always had this dream, to be a police officer, and that was so I could protect them and help them, making their world a better place." She paused and laughed. "And okay, mammals said I couldn't be a cop because I was a bunny, but it was something I wanted to do. Proving them wrong, and showing them that I could do it, however hard it was, was a massive thing for me too. If I work hard enough, I can do anything, but I wouldn't say I'm on a higher level like Gazelle. Cheese and crackers, she's probably interested in making the world a better place and pushing her art further and further, sort of like me." She paused, before reaching out and holding Foxy's paw. "Deep down, you're probably interested in keeping your family nice and safe, while pushing yourself to new limits as well."

"Well," Mr Fox replied, pausing as he turned to look at his wife. "I never plan or do anything that I know will drag them down and, as for new limits… I happen to enjoy it when life gives me chances to reach them."

"Yeah," she said, patting his paw hard. "That's the spirit."

"Yes it is," he agreed, before standing up. They quickly parted, and he mentally scribbled her name off of his list given the lack of any tells or slip-ups.

Again, it was a long shot.

His eyes narrowed though as he saw the black and white mammal standing off in a corner. Paws on his hips like an old gunslinger, he imagined he had a wheat straw in his mouth, moving it around to one side and giving a chew, baring one side of his teeth. "Showdown time, Badger."

Judy, meanwhile, decided to catch some fresh air. She slipped out of the building, passing Kris and Kylie as she went. The latter looked at her, turned back to the mammal he was charged with confronting, and took a deep breath in.

"So…" the opossum said, his voice trailing off a little.

"Yes?" asked the silver fox.

"I… uhhhh…. -Well, I was just wondering," he said, fumbling around with his paws a little as he thought. "Might you, ever… Or perhaps in certain situations… I'm…"

…

"Kylie?"

He huffed, fidgeting with his ubiquitous fishing vest before turning away, scratching behind his ear. "I'm sorry, you're just a bit intimidating, and…"

"Oh," he asked, a little confused. "Am I?"

"Well," Kylie said, before bringing out his fingers to note off of. "There's your high intelligence and perceptiveness, likely seeing through me right now; your high moral fiber which is giving me issues of guilt and poor self-worth already; the overall stress I'm facing given what rests on this; and the fact you know karate."

One of Kris's eyes narrowed, his gaze growing skeptical and inquisitive as it bore down on the smaller mammal.

"Okay, okay!" He said, panicking. "I'll come clean with you."

"Clean about what?"

"I'm…. -Pondering ethics! For instance, do you believe that consequentialist utilitarianist theory as defined and promoted by Jeremy Batham is a valid tool for guiding behavior in this day and age, in particular when seeking to manipulate the two postulated sovereign masters of our existence, even if it requires a temporary compromise of deontologic principles."

Kris paused, thinking a little. "You know, I think I meditated over that a bit a few years back. I didn't know you were interested in it."

"I almost finished a master's degree in moral philosophy."

"Oh! Cool. I never knew. Why did you stop?"

"The professor had an existential incident that involved canned chili and marshmallow snacks. I entered a long Nihilistic phase after that. It wasn't a good place."

Kris nodded, before stepping forwards, a paw on Kylie's shoulder. "You have my sympathies."

"They're appreciated."

"Anyway, back then, I came to the conclusion that the means may well justify the ends when increasing pleasure and reducing pain, but such means shouldn't involve breaking basic rules of conduct and ethics unless it is the only option to prevent a great and terrible harm."

"Even if no-one is ever the wiser of the rules being broken?" Kylie asked.

"If a tree falls in the woods with nobody in it to hear, does it still make a sound?"

"Isn't the answer to that intentionally ambiguous?"

"Ambiguous as far as the basic laws of physics are, which they aren't."

"So, I'm guessing noise then."

"Yes," Kris said, smiling. "Maybe we could talk about this more later. It's very interesting."

"Yes, it is," Kylie agreed, before slipping away. Scurrying on his two feet, he looked over his shoulder and made sure that he Kris wasn't looking, before he slumped into a nearby chair, panting hard as he tried to catch his breath.

Before he was stirred by a heated discussion between Badger and Mr Fox.

"Foxy! What you are describing is an act of pure vandalism."

The red fox shrugged, before waving off a paw. "I'd call it a fine external extension to my living space. You're just playing the oversensitive conservationist here, aren't you?"

"Pah! Hardly," the mustelid ranted, marching in front of Mr Fox to block him in his tracks. He looked around, before waving at the interior. "This is one of the finest Canyon Live Oaks in the world, with a perfectly formed trunk, and a remarkably symmetrical and free-standing crown. I've… -You know that there's architectural blogs that cite this place for its non-intrusiveness!"

"Please," Foxy dissuaded. "You're bluffing."

There was a slight grumble as a phone came out, a pair of paws starting to tap away. "I… know… you… still… won't.. cussing… listen… to… me…"

As he did so, the red fox sidestepped up to Kylie and nudged him. "How's the hustle going?"

Kylie blinked a few times, confused. "The hustle?"

"The new name for the job. New times, new setting, new terminology!"

"Right. Good news, he's cleared."

"-And the bad news?"

"-I was _this_ close to doing the opossum thing."

"Well, onto the next stage of the hustle," Foxy replied, just as he had a phone thrust in his face,

"Exhibit A: A recommendation about the simple elegance of this structure, as compared to Exhibit B, a primarily _external_ tree house," Badger lectured. "Foxy, do you even need more living space?"

"Well," he said with a smile, closing his eyes and succinctly ignoring his lawyer. "A new play room would be nice, attached to an expanded lounge in order to convert this area into one of those fancy snug places which are in vogue now… I'd also fancy a billiard room, a nice conservatory…"

"Fine then," he barked. "But why not dig out some new underground chambers? If it's light you're worried about, then just get some big roof lanterns."

Mr Fox folded his arms. "I'd like to think that my family is above living in holes…"

Badger grumbled and set off again as Kylie slipped away. Now he had to find Skye, something that was seemingly harder than he first though. Guessing she was outside, he left through the large doors at the back of the room, pausing as he spotted Jack. "Have you seen Skye?" he asked.

"She heard that someone's car was making a sound, so she offered to go and have a look."

"Right then," he agreed, before slipping out. The striped bunny was left where he was, not really doing much, until his ears rose as a voice called out.

"Hey there, Stripes." Jack smiled, holding himself up a bit, as Nick turned up next to him. "Interesting. Not helping your special vixen out I see?" he teased. "Does 'new Jack' need a missing mammals report filed, I wonder?"

He closed his eyes and bucked up his head, a finger out. "He happens to be here and very well, thank you. It's just that a boar offered to carry her down." There was a pause, and he gave Nick an almost patronisingly smug look. "I'm improving myself, but I learned from the best about not going too crazy."

"Touché," Nick said. "You got me there."

The Jackrabbit relaxed somewhat, only to end up looking even more proud of himself. "In fact, her letting someone carry herself down there and back up is something much bigger for her than me assisting her is for me! So I was putting her character improvement drive over my own, therefore doing more, therefore fulfilling my 'New Jack' drive _excellently_."

"Okay, yeah, I can see the logic there! In any case, it's always great when following your goal to do more instructs you to do nothing."

"It certainly is a splendid coincidence," Jack chirped up.

…

"So, Skye's improvement drive is 'letting people carry her'?"

"Help her, actually," Jack noted. "She used to be happy doing everything herself, and I was happy letting her do everything by herself. Now, she wants to be better at letting others help her, and I want to be better at helping others. So we're a pretty great match, don't you think?"

"Well I'd say," Nick agreed, smirking. He paused, thinking, before carrying on. "Let me ask you if this sounds familiar. Dumb boy thinks that life is set as it is, and he can get on quite easily by just doing the things he's always done. Only, whoopsie, he's suddenly thrust into close contact with a certain member of the opposite sex. Double whoopsie, she makes an impression on him. You begin to feel different, you look back at the way you acted before and realise that that just can't do, and you want to go out and change it. You have to… -otherwise, like me, you will end up in levels of emotional squalor that can only be fixed by devious therapists and an acting hustle performed by two highly talented super sly bunnies."

Jack nodded. "Yup, that. But not the emotional squalor stuff. I'll change, but again, not going crazy." There was a pause, and he gave Nick a sly look. "I did learn from the best."

"Happy to get the appreciation I deserve. But still, you have changed though," Nick parried back.

Jack bristled a little. "Ahem. I happen to be the one called Jack, so I get to use the 'but you have ' _insert-word-here'_ me' retorts."

"Right, right," Nick said, rolling his eyes. "You know, despite being a bit of a slob, you're still the most aloof actor I've ever met."

"But you have met me," the jackrabbit said back, a grin on his muzzle.

"Have I, yes I have," Nick replied.

There was a pause, and then the two laughed, buckling over.

"Seriously though," Jack replied, smiling. "I feel like I am changing, and I like it! I even cleaned my office up!"

"Great!" Nick noted, giving the Jackrabbit a pat on the back. "Next time I come, I won't need a gasmask."

"There may also be this thing called the floor that you can see," Jack said, crossing his arms and nodding. "Though, may I say something?"

"Yes."

"Cleaning is sooooo boring!" He groaned. "And my paws still ache from cleaning out all that stuff, and emptying the vacuum into the bin sent me choking, and I'm gonna have to keep doing it! Week after week! I've performed entire plays about the futility of existence and the nihilistic and entropic nature of all things… _But this is the best advocate of it ever!_ Forget rolling a boulder up the hill, just clean your room. Then do it again… Then again… then foreveeeerrraaaannnddddeeeevvveeeerrrrr…. No way out… _"_

"Is it me," Nick pondered. "Or are you articulating the thoughts of every grumpy teen ever?"

"I don't know, ask Ash."

Nick nodded. "In a bit," he said. "Hmmm… Thinking about helping him out a bit?"

"No, why? You planning something?"

"No," Nick replied. "Just wondering about you and your helping drive."

Jack shook his head. "I don't know him, so how would I help? Does he even need it? I only got the baby box to cover all the bases. Anyway, I think I've met my 'do more for them' quota for now."

Nick nodded, scratching the Jackrabbit firmly off the list. He smiled, then spoke smugly. "You know, for someone aiming to 'do more', making a quota sounds awfully like a way of doing less doing more."

"Ah," Jack pointed out, sounding oddly pirate-ish. "But you do admit that I am 'doing more'."

Both their mouths slowly pulled into a little smile, before they simultaneously relaxed, gave each other double finger guns and nodded their head head in appreciation. " _Yeeeaaahhhh!"_

As they did so, Nick spotted Skye arriving back at the house, looking bashful as the boar who'd carried her placed her down. Back on one foot and two crutches, her head and ears were folded down and her tail curled up around her. She fidgeted the tip a little with one before paw before setting off back to the house.

"Well, Jack," Nick said, fussing with his tie a little. "Seems like another special fox has arrived, so I'll bid you _adieu_. Don't want to overload you or anything."

"See you; don't go crazy," Jack said with a wave as Nick left, before he turned to Skye. "Doing good?"

She sat down on a chair next to him, her ears showing a definite pink hue, and glanced around sheepishly while fidgeting with end of her tail. "Well, I did it," she said, her voice a little more than a whisper. "I feel like I might as well have been wearing the stuff in that baby box, but I did it…"

She kept on looking around nervously, only to pause as Jack placed a paw on her shoulder. "Nobody's looking. Nobody cares," he said, smiling. "If you were in a wheelchair and I was pushing you, it's not like people would think it's a pushchair, would they?"

"No…" she sighed, turning to him and nodding her head. "But I'd still feel pretty useless if I wasn't using my paws to help push the wheels."

"And what if you were in a straightjacket."

Her eyes narrowed. "This is a family event, remember."

"As if I'd forget," he scoffed. "Just presume this is a thought exercise, Skye."

"What, the family event?" She deadpanned. "What's that trying to prove?"

There was a pause, Skye coyly raising an eyebrow as Jack returned the gesture. "That you can spin a joke," he said, looking at her proudly. "Experiment successful."

"Cuss yeah it was," she smirked, giving him a wink as he relaxed.

"Feeling better then?"

"Mostly, yeah," she said.

"Right, so no emergency bunny therapy required."

"Oh, it will be," she teased, as she looked at him longingly. "But I can wait till we get home."

Jack nodded, before having an idea. He walked up close to her and placed a paw on the arm of her chair. It didn't take long for hers to lie on top, slowly scritching it. "Are you sure about that?"

"Well, you're looking very snuggable right now," she said, a grin slowly growing as she leant forwards, stroking the back of his head. "Let's find somewhere private."

"Let me help you," he said, sauntering forwards to help her up, only to be cut off by a voice.

"-Ah! There you are." Jack turned around to see Kylie there, waiting. "I was looking for you, Miss Autumn."

"Nice to catch up Kylie. How you doing?"

"Good thanks," he said, bringing out a pen. "Could I sign your cast?"

She paused, thinking for a bit, before shrugging. "Go for it."

"Right," he said, leaning in close and carefully signing her ankle. "Say. I heard about an ancient Efrafan play about the morals of the repatriation of ancient goods that was found recently. Any thoughts?"

…

"That's probably more Dr Silverfox's area of expertise," she said, before glancing at Jack.

"What she said."

"Right then," Kylie noted, as he leant in close to the foot. "And I'm done."

Skye nodded and pulled her foot up to have a look, only for a new voice to ring out. "Can I draw on it too?"

She looked up to see a little badger girl, soon joined by a slightly older boy. "Woah! You broke your foot? Did it go snap?"

She smiled and grabbed the pen, passing it to them. "I don't think it made a sound. It just hurt."

"You know," someone else piped up, as a weasel walked over. "My brother broke his arm once…"

"Oh gosh!" An otter chirped. "You know, I could do some pretty flowers on it…"

"I guess you can," Skye said nervously, her ears folding back a little as she noticed a larger crowd beginning to gather around her.

"You know, it's good luck to have over a hundred signings…"

"It may not be much, but I can kiss it better?"

"How's the healing been going?"

"You know, an old trick my mother used…"

"A fox with a broken leg? Gosh, it must be awful for you?"

"Yes," she said, trying to be polite. "One at a time… Yup, it's broken!" The din of strangers voices and well wishes kept getting louder and more intimidating, but she was too polite to tell them to cuss off. Her tail went into her paw, getting fidgeted around as she tried to handle the mob, before she reached for something much stronger.

"Skyyyyeeeee…"

He landed on her lap and was hugged close. "You good?"

"I…"

She began petting his side.

"-Yup."

"Good," she said, relaxing a little as she turned back to the seemingly giant crowd, constantly asking questions while they took turns signing her cast. "Gonna need you for this…"

Jack nodded and relaxed, barely noticing Nick and Ash (who, in a grey tracksuit and hoodie would almost pass as a regular teen were it not for the odd white socks, with trousers tucked in, that he wore) pass by and slip into the staircase.

They were making their way up the narrow staircase, Ash talking as he went. "I mean the woodland theme is nice for the clothes and stuff," he was saying. "But babies don't really care about themed stuff, do they? They'll mostly forget everything anyway, so why bother with artistic coherence? The only reason things become a theme is that they're cute and easy to draw."

"Ah," Nick replied, "but you forget one thing."

"What's that?"

"Little kits are master hustlers," he said. "They have an amazing ability to make their parents spend all sorts of stuff on them. In fact, I'm even a little envious of their talents."

"Well, okay then," Ash replied. "But still, the whole theme thing is just rolling things over to keep designers in a job, not that the design things are actually that complex."

"I hear you," Nick agreed. "I mean look at how owls of all things became the last cute thing. Before the woodland theme, you had owls on T-shirts, owls on blankets, owls on backpacks, you name it, they put owls on it. Exact same style of owl too. Just an oval, two smaller side oval wings, a triangle beak, circle eyes, and a kind of big V on the face. Easy to do, easy to identify, and they do look cute. Most importantly though, you can use simple colour combinations and matches, and basic expressions, to create multiple adorable little variants! Boom, the perfect cute motif, and they're now literally everywhere and have left pawpads in the dust."

"The old cot we have has a pawpad motif."

"Exactly," Nick replied, "back then everything was paw pads. I was living in places with paw pad wallpaper and paw pad sheets. But then the owls came! It's a motif-eat-motif world out there, and woodland might be about to usurp owls for good… -Which is nice, as I adore that woodland stuff."

"Well, why not have woodland with owls, pawpads and foxes all in one go," Ash countered, as he opened the door to the new nursery, he and Nick immediately pausing as they saw Foxy and Badger arguing.

"-This tree gave us a fine set of primary branches to extend onto," the vulpine crooned, pointing out of the window. "Stout, robust, only two and a half steps up from this floor level and splitting into two level branches that grow out from each other at a near right angle. Perfect to build a platform between. Badger, this tree is inviting me to knock through it and build a bedroom and playroom annex with an attached veranda and roof terrace. I can imagine it now, taking design cues from the ox-tongue fungus and helping to raise this tree's appearance to new heights."

"Ox-tongue fungus? -Tumour, more like," Badger barked. "Besides, you'd lose this room in the process! It'd just by a non-space, a hallway, to get to your folly."

"Or I could create a corridor through, converting the rest into a new family bathroom, enabling an extension of the lounge into the old one."

"Pah! Have you even done the load calculations? With all that sideways force curving into a hollowed out tree, you'd need hideous external supports to…"

Ash looked to Nick and Nick to Ash. "Shall we try my room first?"

"-We can do without, Badger. Trust me."

"Yup. Sounds like a plan," he replied, as they slipped out.

"-It'd be Rowan Point all over again!"

…

One floor above, Nick was led into Ash's new room and let out a whistle. "Cosy."

"I know," he replied, looking around.

It was. About a foot had been taken off the walls compared to the room below, and things were all a bit closer together. Thankfully it wasn't cramped or anything, and everything had its own space here. Looking around, Nick raised an eyebrow as he saw a small hatch above Ash's bed, likely the escape hatch Mr Fox had been talking about.

"Here's the comic pages!"

Looking down, Nick leant forwards and nodded as he saw the drawn files, all in order.

"No spoiling though," he said, as he stashed them away.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"Yeah."

"Well, actually I would."

"Huh?"

"In nightmares," Nick added, shivering a little for comedic effect.

"Oh, right," Ash agreed, as he closed the drawer. Nick looked on, before pausing as he saw a small cabinet next to it, locked shut by a padlock.

"Say, Mr," he began, before making a spitting sound. "What's in there."

"There!" he exclaimed, flinching a bit. "It's… Uhhhh… -private stuff. Yes, private and personal stuff."

Nick nodded and took a sniff or two. Having known many teens, he knew what kind of stuff they might keep in there and had received a lot of training to sniff it out. There were a few oddly familiar scents in the room, be they from the cabinet or otherwise he couldn't tell, but nothing that he'd been trained to identify as part of narcotics duties. Of course, there might be a scent proof box in there, or things that didn't have a scent at all.

Such as a missing present.

Nick turned up to Ash. He didn't think that the kit had done it, he didn't want to think, but…

There was a chance, a means, a motive…

This was about ruling him out, wasn't it?

"Know the feeling," he said, before looking over to where the comics went. "How do you feel about finishing it? With Kris?"

"I'm proud," he said, crossing his arms and glowing a little. "I mean, I did something. I did a job, and I made something people enjoy… They enjoy what I did."

"And what Kris did," he pointed out.

There was a slight waver of Ash's right ear, and he nodded. "Well, that's his part, and he did really good on it too."

"Can't fault that logic," he noted. "And what now? Any new projects in the works?"

"I'm not sure. I mean, there's the baby coming and then my main exams. Maybe I should take a break."

"Or not. Maybe do a solo project?"

Ash looked on, thinking about it for a second or two before nodding. "Yeah. Maybe. -In fact, I could probably do a great one. -If Kris wanted to do his own thing he could do one too, it'd probably be better, but mine would still be great. -And different. And as long as people like what I do in the end, that's the main thing."

Nick nodded, before being distracted by a knock on the door, Mr Fox calling out. "May we come in?"

"Yeah," Ash said, as his father and Badger entered.

"-Anyway," he carried on, "as you can see here we've done some excellent expansion work. You can still smell the fresh wood scent."

Badger looked on, nodding a little. "Well this kind of work is perfectly sensible."

"-As would be my future extension upwards!" Mr Fox replied, "consider a spiral staircase up to the top, from which you would access a vibrant diversity of new rooms, each more abstract and unique in shape than the last."

"Foxy," Badger warned. "You're trying my patience. You're the only one here who thinks that this is a good idea."

Sensing an opportunity, Nick slipped in. "Why, I perfectly agree with you."

"See!" Badger agreed, "now this is a fox who knows what he's talking about."

Mr Fox shot a level glance at Nick, the fox cop smirking a little, raising and eyebrow in return. "Indeed. A complete house remodel and development with no hot tub?"

"You see Foxy, you don't…" Badger paused, before turning to Nick. "This better be a hot tub in the grounds!"

"The grounds?" Nick exclaimed. "Why would I put it there? Such a waste of the great vantage points up on this tree?"

"Oh, you can't be serious."

"I'm not. I'm Nick. But I'm serious about this. Imagine, an elephant sized hot tub, doubling up as a pool too, suspended up near the crook one-third up the largest branch."

"Ju… You know how far out that is?"

"And with a Buckminster Fawnler inspired glass canopy above it," Nick continued, as the mustelid buried his paws in his face. "Consider you and the missus taking laps and drinking champagne in the hot water, all while the steam does your fur wonders, as you look out at the snow falling down around you due to Rainforest District-effect."

"Consider this tree, ruined by your architectural misadventures, tipping over because you didn't bother to learn about forces and moments in school!"

"I learnt about them!" Ash piped up. "Just put another hot tub on the other side."

"An excellent proposal from both of you," Mr Fox agreed.

"Where would another elephant sized hot tub even go! Tell me that Foxy!"

Mr Fox seemed stumped for a second or two, only for Ash to shoot his paw up. "Maybe instead of another elephant sized hot tub, you could put up a hot tub that's half the size but have it twice as far out."

"Moments!" Nick agreed, giving Ash a thumbs up. "Cuss yeah!"

"Nick Wilde was it? You are not a fox who knows what he's talking about," Badger remarked, before looking down at Ash. "Neither are you."

"I will not be put down or lowered in any way," he remarked stubbornly, before turning to Nick. "Let's go downstairs."

"Right then," Nick agreed, before slipping off with Ash. Back into the nursery, he could see it in more detail. The walls, as before, were still plain wood, albeit with far more shelves. There were some new dressers, as well as other baby stuff set out. Resting symmetrically below the main window was the cot, an old travel one with a white metal frame and fabric mesh walls that held up the mattress below. Just like Ash had said, it was paw pad themed, with hundreds of different itty-bitty paw pads, all in primary colours, on the white mattress. The sides themselves had a few big pads imprinted onto the mesh. In contrast, Ash's homemade mobile hanging up above had smiling pawpads, owls, foxes, letters, numbers, stars, a moon, a sun and clouds.

"Unique. I like it," Nick said.

"You can say that it's different if you want," Ash replied, as he waved around. There were some large painted murals hung up here and there, which he'd done, showing cartoonish scenes of pre-evolved fox families playing or living in dens.

"Did your mother do any of these?"

"That one over there with the family sheltering from the thunderstorm," he remarked, as he wandered over to a corner of the room. There was a large bump in the tree on that side, which had been carved into to create a small room, large enough to fit a toilet in if wanted. Instead, soft plastic mattresses had been laid out while the rest of it had been plastered and then painted by Ash in his no-theme theme. Some stuffed toys, a building block set, and other items waited within, while a metal gate had been laid across it.

"Ah. The Bebe' jail," Nick joked, as Ash pointed to the baby monitor fixed in place. "Carrots did say that fox kits are illegally cute. Your new sibling has been sentenced to an extended time in bebe' jail for breaking the law!"

Ash flicked a little smile as he passed by the rest of the place. There were some bookshelves, which had started to be filled out, along with an old changing and cleaning set complete with a sink-tub and small shower attachment for helping with messier incidents. Just like the crib, it was unashamedly paw pad themed.

"You've all done a good job," Nick remarked, smiling. "I think New Fox will settle down here nicely… "

"New Fox…? -Right. Clever."

"I tend to be," Nick smirked. "Say, thought of any names yet?"

Ash shook his head. "Mom said that if it was a girl she'd have Rosalind as a middle name."

"That's nice," Nick agreed.

"But apart from that, no."

"Fair enough," Nick remarked, nodding.

He and Ash were broken off though by a slight knocking on the door as Dr Silverfox entered. "Pardon me, but have you seen Kris anywhere?"

"No," Ash replied.

"Me neither," came another voice, as Mr Fox came down, Badger still in tow.

"-As a learned man," the mustelid immediately pressed, "can you explain to your brother-in-law that he's an idiot."

There was an awkward stand-off, before Ash slipped out, passing Dr Silverfox. "I'm leaving."

"Good idea," he muttered, before turning to Nick. "Have you seen my son?"

"No," Nick replied honestly, walking up to him. If he now had to find his son on top of this missing present then that would really be taking the biscuit. Still, he suddenly had a cunning plan. He made sure to get a little sniff of the mammal before watching him leave, then turning to watch the arguing fox and badger for a little bit, before quietly sniffing out.

He headed upwards, gently knocking on Ash's room before slipping in, turning towards the locked cabinet. Moving in, sniffing close, his eyes widened.

Ever so faintly, he smelt Dr Silverfox.

His ears lowered. It couldn't be Ash, could it? He'd come to peace with everything, he was okay…

But it was Dr Silverfox's scent in there…

But it was weak! Far weaker than if he'd grabbed the present straight up and thrust it in there. Maybe it was something that he'd given to Ash as a present?

Or maybe it was the present, but in a scent proof box. They kept scents in, but generally you needed to rub the outside down in order to clear off any scents that had got onto there. That, and ensure it was properly closed in the first place…

The only way he'd know is if he opened the padlock and snuck in for a peek. After all, he could easily pick it, but…

Whatever he was thinking was suddenly cut off as he heard footsteps, rising up the stairs outside. He realised with horror that it might be Ash, he might get found out, he might shatter the trust between them! He'd only be seen as a sneaky fox, up to no good…

Looking around, panicking, his gaze passed over and then anchored to a spot on the ceiling. The 'escape hatch'. Bolting up, he hauled itself up onto Ash's bed and opened it up, a small rope ladder dropping down. At a speed that would even impress the drill instructor at the police academy he scurried up the ladder before pulling it up and closing the hatch behind him.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he took stock of his surroundings. He was in a short shaft, almost pitch black bar the slight creep of light coming from above. Nudging it, Nick smiled as it moved.

Prying it open, out Nick went.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:**

.

Pushing it out and open, Nick took a breath of fresh air in as he stepped outside. Making sure the hatch he'd come out of was closed behind him, he took stock of where he was. Up above him, the great canopy of the tree grew wide and tall, rustling with a thick blanket of leaves. Great, stout and tall branches went up, like columns of a cathedral, to hold up the living roof above. He'd emerged into the crux of the tallest and greatest of these, where the main trunk itself finally let itself split asunder on its way up.

The bark was thick and knobby, thankfully giving Nick lots of places to hold onto, though he had to be a little careful with his foot paws. Despite a sharply cut drainage ditch, the area was still a natural sink, and moss and slime grew around it. Holding his breath, making sure his claws were dug in, Nick slowly but carefully began making his way down.

"Keep it easy Wilde," he told himself. He'd certainly had trickier climbs up and down during his police academy training, though the falls had been far less and the safety padding far more. After all, unlike grey foxes, he wasn't exactly built for climbing trees.

However, he always valued being adaptable, and he was making good progress.

"Evening," Mr Fox said, as he climbed up past him.

"Evening," Nick replied, as he passed down. There were two massive branches next to him, and if he shimmied over to the other side using them, maybe he could…

"-Wait, what?!"

"Mind if we sit?" Mr Fox said casually, as he gestured to the two branches.

"I… -Yes!" Nick barked out, suddenly confused. Hauling himself up onto the larger of the branches, he shimmied over as Mr Fox practically jumped up and settled down next to him. "Convenient, correct?"

Deciding to just roll with it for a second or so, Nick relaxed. "I may be enjoying the topiary, yes. Is that why you're out here?"

"Well, this was more of a debating exercise," he said casually, smiling as Nick gave a confused tilt of his head. "Let me rewind for a second," he continued, two paws chopping in front of him, before swooshing to the side.

.

* * *

.

**A few minutes ago**

The argument inside the new nursery had carried on before moving down to the master bedroom, where it was getting ever more heated, Mr Fox casually throwing out new ideas for additions, extensions and alterations, Badger getting more irritated as he tried to shoot them down.

"I don't know why you're so concerned about my family getting a little more space?" he asked casually.

"I'm worried because I can see your bank account and, unlike you, my mind isn't too full of vapid thoughts to not appreciate things as they are!"

"I just hear a bit of envy. If you like this house so much, why don't you buy it? Or make your own?"

"Ha, you really think I'd want to live somewhere like this," Badger scoffed, gesturing around. Mr Fox felt like he'd been slapped in the face, both with confusion from Badger's objection to the house and the insult that came with it.

"Now hang on here, you can't say that you don't like this house after all the times you've waxed on about it like an architecture critic, or a critic of architecture."

"Pah," Badger scoffed. "You do realise that there's a difference between appreciating a building and wanting to live in it? I appreciate the Sistine chapel. It doesn't mean I want to cook my breakfast with the papalcy stove they use to send the smoke signals."

"And what exactly _wrong_ with my house?"

"The fact that I have four kits, and my current Sett in the nocturnal district has six bedrooms, two lounges, and doesn't need winter heating. Unlike your place, where I'd do my knee in everyday going up that health hazard of a staircase to get anywhere; I like everything on a single floor, thanks."

"Well, I quite happen to enjoy the exercise," Mr Fox countered.

Badger crossed his arms and shook his head. "Really. I've still yet to hear one advantage of this place over my sett."

"Hmm, let me think. It's prettier, naturally expands, is organic, stylish, and has easier egress in case of emergencies."

"Easier emergency egress? Stop pulling my leg, Foxy. Show me."

"Very well, I shall," Mr Fox said, nodding, before he immediately opened the window and climbed out.

.

* * *

.

Back in the present, Mr Fox crossed his arms. "And that was how I showed him."

Nick, sitting next to him, relaxed, letting a smile grow on his face. "Did you show him?" he said, "yes, yes you did."

"So, you're finally warming up to this?" Mr Fox asked, a warm smile growing on his muzzle.

"Maybe I am a little now," Nick said with a shrug, looking around. The view was great, after all, and getting to talk with the others had been fun. Things hadn't gone crazy wrong though, so that was nice. Then again… "Any luck?"

"Well, Hopps and Badger are out. She's too focused on doing the right thing…"

"-As I said," Nick pointed out.

"As you said, while Badger turns out to have no taste in living arrangements! Kylie also ruled out Kris and Skye."

"Jack wouldn't be bothered enough to do it," Nick added, before sighing. "And I'm pretty sure that Ash wouldn't either."

" _Pretty_ sure?"

"Make it beautifully sure then," Nick said, ballparking it.

"And how much exactly is that."

"Ninety-six percent, I guess?"

"You guess, well I'd agree… Though maybe ninety-five…" he lead on.

…

"No, ninety-six," Nick restated.

"And why's that?"

"What's the opposite of beautiful?"

"Ugly?"

"No, trashy."

"Okay then, where does this intriguing logic train go next?"

Nick turned to Mr Fox with a smug look on his muzzle, before raising an eyebrow. "What number is the reverse of ninety-six?"

"Hmmm," Mr Fox hummed appreciatively, nodding in understanding. "The trashiest number."

"Yup," Nick agreed smiling, "though I know how we could make it a certainty. The whole triple digit shebang."

Mr Fox nodded. "Sounds like an excellent course of action then," he said, before crossing his arms. "You see, this is why I like you. Maybe if you'd have planned this all, we'd have our wayward gift by now."

"Well we would," Nick said smugly. "As everyone would have searched for it."

"But then everyone would have known it was gone," Mr Fox pointed out. "Not very cunning for an exceptionally cunning fox as yourself."

Nick paused, not quite sure what to think of the compliment. On one paw, wasn't it awfully close to being called sneaky or sly, things with bad connotations which he wanted to get away from? On the other…

…

You know what? Being cunning wasn't bad! Cuss yeah, he was cunning, and he knew it!

"Well, maybe it's not the most 'cunning' thing in the world," Nick explained, relaxing back and flashing Mr Fox a cunning look. "But unlike others, I'm happy to lose a little face in the name of the mission."

"I think you mean compromise yourself," Mr Fox parried back. The two foxes' eyes met, and each gave the other a knowing and excited look.

"Well, how would you do it?" Nick pondered out loud. "Say for instance, an operation in which, while keeping within the bounds of the law, you had to make a large quantity of money via the manufacture and selling of frozen paw shaped goods."

"So, how would I hawk quote-unquote Paw-Pops?"

"-Pawpsicles."

"Well, I'd first arrange a scan of the supplies and competition. Who exactly sells the best paw pops? What goes into them? I'd presume it is most likely a syrupy concoction which is frozen on site and molded. Hence forth, I'd procure a bulk quantity of such ingredients…"

"Wholesale pricing it?" Nick asked, shaking his head.

"And what do you do, pay full retail price?" Foxy enquired.

"I get _others_ to pay the full retail price, using a clever act and social manipulation. There's a big difference there."

Mr Fox shrugged it off. "Moving on, once manufactured in my freezers…"

"-Which require energy and a fixed capital cost."

"Seeing as I already own them, it happens to only be marginal."

"More than freezing them in Tundra Town."

"And the fuel cost for getting to Tundra Town is?"

Nick paused, stymied by that one for a second or two, before he shook his head clear. "Less than the investment costs of new freezers for myself, so let's call that section a draw," he replied with a proud smile. "Though my Pawpsicles would still cost less to make, and once I sell them for two bucks a pop, I come out on top!"

Mr fox raised an eyebrow. "Two bucks a pop?"

"Well, you'll find that bankers, rodents, and rodent bankers are looser with their money," Nick explained.

…

"-Just two a pop? Is that really the limit of your ambitions?"

"I…" Nick began, suddenly confused. "Two a pop was pushing it as is."

"And unambitious. I can sell them for at least twenty!"

"No you can't."

"Or maybe far more."

"And I enjoy howling at the moon," Nick said, before looking away and shrugging. "But if you think you can sell them for more…"

"Step one of selling your Paw Pops for more," Mr Fox began. "Find a highly limited clientele with a large quantity of disposable income. Step two, push them into a situation where they're more than happy to sell their goods. I for one would pick a convention of arctic or Tundratown business mammals, who are often exceptionally rich and have a strong disliking of hot weather. I would then ensure that any major conference of theirs that is coming up is held at the Grand Palm or somewhere else in Sahara Square. Tundra Town has few major conference centres, and sweet-talking the organisers with the potential for networking and entertainment opportunities should swing it further. If it doesn't, we can still salvage that as we enter step two. Using some simple print outs, maybe some swiped ID cards, we infiltrate in and make adjustments to the conference thermostats. Given ample time, we can retreat, enter in with our goods and begin the sales pitch just as the mammals begin to get hot under the collar. Seeking cool relief more than a good deal, they pay our inflated price until we begin to run low, or at least say we begin to run low. At this stage, after a bit of encouragement, we have several of the mammals annoyed and facing off against each other, the perfect formula for an emotion led bidding war for what's left. In doing so, we make an exceptional profit on our Paw Pops and, in doing so, I win this little exercise. Thank you, applause welcome."

Nick looked on, his mouth hanging open slightly, before he shrugged and rolled with it, clapping his paws a little. "You know, if we combine our powers…"

"Integrate your reduced manufacturing costs with my heightened sales earnings!"

"Then all the world will be our Pawpsicle," Nick proclaimed.

Mr Fox nodded. "I can drink to that," he said, before handing over a bottle of cider. Nick looked at it, only to pause.

"Where did you get this from?"

"Kylie gave it to me," he said, gesturing up with a paw. Nick followed it, looking up to see the opossum up above him, hanging from the next branch up by his tail.

"Hi," he said, waving a little with his free paw, the other holding his drink.

Nick gave a shrug and pulled up his cider, taking a sip before choking a bit. "Oh my…"

Mr Fox gave him a proud look as he took his own swig.

"That's… Good stuff…"

"I know," Mr Fox replied, smiling. "I have a specialist supplier for this stuff, and it's the best you can get. Burns down the throat, fires up your stomach…"

"Clears the sinuses too," Nick said, smiling as he pulled up his bottle again. This time he was ready, and he took a good swig of the molten gold before looking out over the city. "But yeah… We're sly foxes, but different sly foxes. I'm also afraid to say that my Pawpsicle days are over."

"And maybe your Paw Pop days have just begun?" Mr Fox said, wiggling his eyebrows as he took another drink.

"Nah," Nick replied, shrugging. "Problem one, I'm a cop now. I want to be this new mammal, and maybe I can still by sly, but if I am then it's being sly for justice! Problem two, Paw Pops are a terrible name."

"You'll come around to them…"

"No, I won't."

"Regardless," Mr Fox mused. "It seems that you and I may have missed out on working together, scheming and plotting, in the big leagues at least." There was a pause and a smile. "We could have been quite the team."

"That we could have," Nick replied, taking another mouthful. "Though we still have our little mission tonight."

"That we do," he said. "And your little thing with Ash, which we got conveniently sidetracked from a while ago."

"Oh, that," Nick said. "Do you know what Ash has in his locked cabinet?"

"No."

"Well, there's something with a very slight scent of Kris' father in there," he explained. "I don't think it's the present, it smells far too weak, but it's the only lead we have."

"So…" Mr Fox mused. "My son could be behind this or he might not be. Regardless, the one way to find out would involve a quick pick of the lock, an examination of the internal contents of the cupboard, and then the sealing of it up again with him none the wiser. We either find the missing gift or absolve my son. Thankfully I'm already halfway up to his room, so I'll finish my drink and be on my way."

Nick nodded at first, before pausing, his ears drooping down. Settling his bottle down, he looked to Mr Fox. "You actually think Ash did it?"

Putting his down, he turned to face Nick. "No. As you said, a ninety-five…"

"-Ninety-six…"

"-Ninety-five percent chance that he's clear is in my heart. But that gives me a five-percent chance of quickly saving the day with no harm done."

"I…" Nick began, trying to find the words. Instead he sighed, nudged himself up to Mr Fox, put a paw on his shoulder and looked him in the eye. "You care for your son, don't you?"

"Of course I do."

"So why are you going to break his trust?" he asked, sighing. "I mean, we all sort of did it to everyone by doing this mission, but we weren't harming anyone. I may have come closer when I did the sniff check. But breaking into your son's private cabinet? Even on the slightest chance that he might be our thief, even though we both agree he wouldn't really be?"

"But he won't know."

There was a clearing of a voice from above, and the pair looked up at Kylie. "A tree falling in the forest still makes a sound. Physics…" he said, before trailing off, a confused yet philosophical look on his face.

"Kylie, are you having flashbacks?" Mr Fox panicked, standing up on the branch and holding the cider up, below the opossum's nose. "Sniff, mam. Sniff, and pull yourself back to the present. Follow the cider, and get away from the 'chili'!"

"Just contemplating," he said quietly, as Nick cleared his throat.

"I think he was trying to say that it doesn't matter if Ash learns or not. You're still breaking his trust." There was a pause, and a sigh. "After all that's happened, is that the type of father you really want to be?"

Mr Fox stood there, frozen for a second or two, before nodding. "You're right," he admitted. "But what should we do instead? How do we do this?"

"Maybe you admit there's a problem," Nick said, before smiling. "I mean, it's pretty ironic if all your attempts to save face just cover it in egg."

The air hung quietly for a second or two, before Mr Fox nodded. "Very well then," he said, shrugging. "We'll come clean with everyone, after finishing the drinks."

Nick nodded and smiled. "I can raise a glass to that," he said.

"So can I," Mr Fox agreed, before turning to Kris. "You still need a drink as we haven't given you one yet, as we've only just realized you were here. More importantly, why are you here?"

All three existing pairs of eyes were suddenly fixed on the new arrival, who shrugged. "I was spying on you."

Nick looked at him and smirked. "No points for guessing the next question."

Mr Fox nodded and turned to his nephew. "Let's start the rewind then."

.

* * *

.

"If a tree falls in a wood with nobody in it to hear, does it still make a sound?"

"Isn't the answer to that intentionally ambiguous?"

"Ambiguous as far as the basic laws of physics are, which they aren't."

"So, I'm guessing noise then."

"Yes," Kris said, smiling. "Maybe we could talk about this more later. It's very interesting."

"Yes, it is," Kylie agreed, before slipping away. Kris went the other way, quickly getting back to Mrs Fox, who was sitting down.

"Auntie, Kylie is acting odd," he said, watching her face immediately souring a little.

"As I suspected," she said. "Kylie acting odd means Freddy is up to something, and Freddy's been gone a while so I suspected he was up to something. Thanks for confirming all my suspicions."

"You're welcome," he said. "Do you want me to find out what he's up to?"

She smiled and nodded. "Yes please, and thanks for always being so thoughtful."

He nodded and immediately got to work. He sneaked up, trying to listen in on the discussions going on in the nursery, but having to retreat down as mammals moved about. He thought he heard someone in the Ash's room, so he went up there, quickly deducing that the empty place was only empty now thanks to the trap door in the roof. Looking out, he observed the group as they talked, before slipping down to meet them.

.

* * *

.

Finishing his retelling, Kris looked up at the group. "So, you're trying to find a missing present?"

Mr Fox held back for a second or two before nodding. "Yes. I'm afraid to say that…" He trailed off, flubbing about with his fingers for a bit, before Nick cut in front of him.

"Now, is a present missing? Yes, yes it is. Is it your father's? I'm afraid so."

Kris blinked a few times from the news, before his ears dipped down. "That isn't good then," he said, his voice slightly worried. "I can understand why you were acting all secret then."

Mr Fox nodded. "Indeed. Coincidentally, any new ideas or insights?"

"No," Kris said, shaking his head.

"Right then," Mr Fox grumbled, before moving on to the next waiting mammal. "And what about you Ash? Any ideas?"

"No," Ash said.

"Right. And when did you get here?"

"Just now."

"And why are you here?"

The teenage kit threw his paws up in the air and gestured around. "All the cool mammals are here! You're telling me that I can't have in?"

"No, of course not," Mr Fox replied, bending forwards to lead Ash on into the centre of the group. "I'm telling you that you can have in. I'm also telling you that, in our attempts to identify and investigate the vanishing of your uncles present, we may have lightly suspected you and Kris and secretly investigated you."

"Okay then," he said, shrugging it off before sitting down. "So, what now? Are we just sitting here and drinking cider?"

Mr Fox paused, looked at Nick who gave him and nod, and then looked around at the assembled mammals. "I think that a nice cider drink, preparing ourselves before we admit our complete and total defeat, could be a very good idea. Kylie?"

"Yup," he chirped, bringing out some new bottles. They were passed around as the mammals in question settled down, lounging in the branches as they began drinking. The evening was warm, though the occasional gust of wind sent a slight chill through their fur, and they looked on as the sun set. The glowing lights of downtown and the rainforest were spread out, as the rest of the sky was painted a darkening orange by the setting sun. The odd bird called about here and there, and everyone relaxed.

"Say, son…" Mr Fox asked, looking over to Ash. "What is in your cabinet?"

Finishing his drink, the younger fox looked around a little. "It's… -Why do you want to know?" he asked, going all defensive.

"It's just that while sniffing, Nick smelt a bit of Kris' father in there."

"Oh!" he exclaimed, before relaxing. "He gave me this limited edition of Whitecape. It's that. It's definitely that."

"Yes," Kris agreed. "I remembered Dad buying it."

"Do you know what's in your father's present to my wife?" Mr Fox asked.

"I'm pretty certain, but not entirely sure… -But he wanted me to keep it secret regardless."

"To secrets then," Nick toasted, bringing up his drink. All took a swig, savoring it.

…

"The comic isn't secret."

Lazily, everyone turned to Ash, who shrugged.

"Unless you don't want spoilers."

Mr Fox shrugged, looked over to Nick, who shrugged too. They turned back to Ash, who smiled.

"It's a standalone story about Whitecape, the savior hero, being swapped with black cape. Blackcape is Whitecape from a world where people like Bellwether won, and Predators are second-class citizens. So where Blackcape comes from, he's known as a terrorist, and Whitecape has to carry on fighting for the predators."

"How bad is this place?" Kylie asked.

"All the predators have to wear special wrist locks, which drug them to calm them down if they get too excited, and then cause illnesses and stuff as a side effect. If they don't wear them, they're shot."

"That sounds bad," Kylie noted.

"Nasty place," Mr Fox agreed, before turning to Nick, raising his bottle and flashing a wink. "Thanks for sorting that out for us."

"Hey, that's what we do… -well, what I did before I was at the ZPD," Nick said, smiling.

"And if you didn't fix them there, you'd probably fix them when they started the whole drug injection thing."

Nick paused, thinking. "I'm not sure. Besides, maybe it'd be you who does all that."

"Maybe, maybe," Mr Fox contemplated, a cunning fire beginning to roar in the black of his eyes. "What would you do?"

Taking another swig of his bottle, Nick gave him an odd look. "It may sound crazy, but right now all I can think of is giving Preds a nice little place where they can take those things off and be themselves, you know? A little escape from it all… Maybe I'm still not used to the whole change the world thing, but sticking a finger up behind the bad guys back? That's totally me."

"So, a safe haven, huh?" Mr Fox mused. "What kind would it be? I mean, you'd want to go big! Something like an underground secret city, an entire society living and stealing from them! Being free, under their noses, the entire time! Children playing and happy, bountiful food, and a high standard of underground living, all while those schmucks on the surface sit around in the rain waiting for something that'll never come."

Nick looked at him and shrugged. "I'm afraid I don't share your delusions of grandeur. I was only thinking of a fun-time pred-themed amusement park."

"Was that big fun time amusement park also a funding route and start point for a whole underground city of free preds?" Foxy asked. "Or maybe just a fun side-annex to the project?"

"No," Nick noted, "though, now that I think of it, it could be the start of some underground railroad."

"Maybe that's the right course then," Mr Fox pondered. "Get them all out and away from harm."

"That sounds good," Ash said from behind. "But what about taking on the bad guys?"

"Hey, maybe that's what Whitecape-slash-Blackcape will do," Nick said, smiling. "I do the fun park, your father does the underground city, and Whitecape, with his boy wonders by his side, does the revolution! I think we'd be one cuss of a team."

Mr Fox nodded. "That we would. The cunning foxes, loaded up with guts, spunk, and crazy gadgets like the carrot pen or my drugged blueberries. The…"

He was cut off by the sound of Nick hacking and coughing, choking on his drink. Pausing, he wiped his mouth before turning to Mr Fox, an aghast look on his face. "Your _what_ blueberries?"

"Old trick of mine," he replied proudly. "Lacing a blueberry with a sleeping pill, using it as bait, and snoozing out any dangers." He smiled, giving a quick double whistle, a pair of tongue clicks and a wink.

Nick looked on, singularly unimpressed. "I am shocked, shocked I say! Excuse me a second, after hearing of that defilement to fine fruit, I may have to vacate the area." Tilting his muzzle up to an exaggerated high, he sauntered past the rest of the crowd, giving an aloof "Hmmmphh…" as he passed Mr Fox and grabbed the tree trunk, beginning to make his way down again. "I bid you adieu."

The other red fox rolled his eyes. "And to you too," he said, as he finished off his drink. He scanned around, looking at the others, before shrugging. "Let's go in and admit defeat boys," he said with a sigh. "We didn't find it."

"But I didn't even get a chance to search," Ash protested.

"Well maybe in five-ten minutes we admit defeat," Mr Fox replied, stepping up and walking over to the nearby nursery windows. He paused, and looked down. "Want to join in, Nick?"

Already too far down to climb up again, Nick looked up and shrugged. "If you apologize to the blueberries, sure."

"If you buy me a punnet, I shall."

Slowly making his way down, Nick smiled and looked back up. "You're not going to hustle me that easily."

Mr Fox peered over and gave a quick salute, before he and his posse retreated back into the trunk. Nick, his path already locked in, took a little longer to shimmy his way down. It didn't help that he was on the downhill side of the tree, so had another floor to go down.

A bit of shimmying though, and he let himself slide down the last stretch, landing on both feet. He smiled, brushed off his paws and then turned, staring right into the eyes of a very unhappy swift fox.

"Nick." Skye growled. "What was that?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

**.**

**AN: Remember when I said I'd be rushing some of these chapters out to get to the triple date before I went away for an Easter Ski Holiday?**

**Well, thanks to the magic of Corona Virus ™, I don't need to anymore!**

**Updates will remain weekly, though I still plan to have a small hiatus (maybe just a few weeks) before I launch into the full length series finale.**

**Which may be a good thing as I saw Beastars Saturday…**

**And yeah, I have a fic called Zoostars now. Go figures. That'll be updating on a looser schedule.**

**I'm also carrying on uploading my oneshots to its own drabble fics. If you haven't checked it out yet, why not? The latest one has Nick in a Slave Leia outfit!**

**But enough of me, on with the show.**

**.**

**.**

"What was what?" Nick asked, before regretting it.

"DON'T!" Skye barked, stepping forwards. Nick retreated a few steps as she began encroaching his personal steps, fruitlessly putting his paws up to try and calm her. She ignored them, the brow of her muzzle furrowing as her lower jaw dropped a little, revealing her teeth. Her tail bristled up and gave a few powerful sweeps before she stopped herself, closing her eyes and breathing out. "I wanted to trust you," she grovelled, grinding her crutch ends into the earth. "I did trust you. After all, you had changed, you said there was no more sneaking or mischief coming from you, you promised!"

"I," Nick began, before looking up the tree he'd just climbed down. "Oh…"

"Is 'Oh' all you have this time?" she asked, crossing her arms and patting the end of her good paw into the ground.

Nick was about to say the standard response to this kind of mishap, the good old 'this isn't what it looks like', before remembering that that never actually worked. So he cut it out and skipped straight ahead. "Me and a few other boys were hanging out up there," he explained.

"Then where are they?" She asked, looking up and finding nothing.

"They went inside."

"And you just happened to climb down."

"Yes," Nick replied.

"Really?" she pressed, not convinced.

"Yes really!" Nick said back. "Listen, I know me sneaking around and climbing down the outside of this house may look suspicious, but it isn't what it looks like."

"Oh, what does it look like then!?"

"I just explained it," Nick complained. "-And what it actually is." He turned away and groaned in frustration. "And always with the same response, every single time."

"You're telling me," Skye snarked, as he looked back at her. She trembled a bit in anger before releasing it in a bitter sigh, shaking her head as she did so. "I was already feeling miserable, and you just had to put salt in the wounds," she muttered, holding a paw up to silence him. "I thought you'd changed," she said, looking into his eyes, hers trembling with disappointment. "I wanted to believe you'd changed…"

"Listen, ask the others," Nick began, only for Skye to turn and march off the other way.

"I'm such an idiot," she grumbled, looking down. Were they not occupied with her crutches, Nick was certain that she'd have both paws gripping her face tightly. "I… I wanted to hope that you weren't the miserable troublemaker I knew back at school Nick, I wanted to hope that you had changed and that we could be friends. I was ready to trust you when you said, -you promised, you'd changed. You said that the old you was gone forever, but here he is again, less than an hour later!" She turned to look at him, tears in her eyes. "Just go ahead, and keep doing your sneaking around and bad stuff. Just know that next time I won't be stupid enough the think that you actually changed." She pushed forwards, speeding ahead on her crutches as she went out into the fields. Nick stepped forwards to follow her before stopping himself.

"Just because it looks like bad stuff is going on, doesn't mean it is!" he called, only for the rapidly escaping vixen to ignore him. Nick just stood where he was, looking down and rubbing his face in his paws. "Now, what would usually happen is that I'd go after her and keep trying to explain it," he narrated

…

"Which I won't do as I can just go inside, wait for her to get back, and have all my witnesses explain it to her." And so he turned to walk back in, though he couldn't help but feel down as he did so. Skye had jumped right to the worst conclusions about him, which he guessed he deserved. It wouldn't affect him in the long run, she'd very quickly be proved incorrect, everything would be fine…

So why was he still feeling down?

Sitting down at the kitchen table, he closed his eyes and thought.

…

It was because he'd disappointed her, wasn't it?

Even if it was temporary, even if it was her fault, he'd hurt her. Nick mirthfully remembered that old him didn't care at all about that stuff. Heck, he'd thought that almost everyone hated him to some degree or other. Yet now, given that he was a role model, someone that mammals looked up to, it did hurt. That was something that he took pride in, that felt good, and failing it, for whatever reason, felt bad.

Still, his words wouldn't make it better. He'd have to endure this for a little bit, no biggy after all. If only Skye could realise that sneaky or mysterious behaviour didn't mean that bad stuff was going on!

He nodded and stepped up, before his eyes widened. "Hang on," he said, patting a paw on the floor. "Hang on just a minute."

He was broken from his train of thought as the door above him opened. Looking up, he saw Mr Fox, Kylie and the boys coming down, Mr Fox pausing as he saw Nick. "Nice to meet you again, I was just talking with the partygoers for a medium length time period…"

"-You were faster down, that doesn't matter," Nick interrupted.

Mr Fox's eyes widened. "Wait, you're not going to try and claim victory?"

"No, I'm not even going to use the argument I had with Skye. It's not important right now."

"You had an argument with her?" Ash asked.

"She mistook my tree climbing for mischievousness and wasn't happy," Nick rushed out. "Of course, you guys can explain what really happened when we have the time, which we may or may not have now. Mr Fox, Foxy, did you tell the others about the missing present?"

"No," he said, a grin growing on his face. "Am I detecting a change of plan?"

Nick crossed his arms. "Don't act quite that smug yet, you didn't think of this, I did."

"Think of what, may I ask?"

"I'll explain in your office," he said, as he rushed in, the others following.

One soon leaving again and going outside.

.

Further away from the tree, in the middle of a grassy daisy covered bank, sat Skye. Crutches down, she'd curled up on her side, cosying up in on herself and relaxing.

Pulling one of the small flowers, she carefully pricked the stem, right near its end, before threading it through a similar hole in another flower. The daisy head, far bigger than the hole, got stuck, forming another link in the long chain she was making.

Another flower then came up and was threaded through, and so she went on, carefully keeping her paws occupied. She was idly thinking of whether she could do something more elaborate, like making a dreamcatcher, when her ears rose. Looking over her shoulder, she almost groaned as she saw a red fox approaching, only to realise that it wasn't Nick. "Hi Ash."

"Hi Skye," he said, wandering over. "Too noisy in there?"

Her ears lowered. "You could say that," she muttered, shivering a little. She couldn't help but look at her cast, now covered with hundreds of stranger's names, and all sorts of other odd doodles and such.

"I get what that's like," he said, sitting down next to her. "Sometimes you want some alone time." He paused, suddenly looking a little nervous. "If you want, I could go again."

"That's fine," she said, smiling. "Just don't ask to sign my cast."

He gave a solid nod in agreement. "I'm guessing that stuff might not have been exactly consensual."

"No," she groaned. "Kylie asked to sign it, then some kits who I couldn't really say no to, then a bunch of others getting up close to me and chatting and drawing these things on a cast that'll go anyway soon enough. I mean, I know it's supposed to feel good and that they want to make you feel better… It just doesn't make me feel better. All those mammals just made me feel drained, and cranky, and needing some emergency alone time."

"Nothing wrong with that," he said, shrugging.

"Thanks," she sighed. "Guess you can enjoy the quiet with me. Make the most of it while you can."

He nodded, smiling as he sat down. "You do realise that babies sleep a lot and have earlier bed times. I can have my quiet time then."

"Good point," she noted, as Ash brought out an old bit of stale bread. He threw it out into the grass, hoping to attract some birds to watch. Until then, they were both quiet for a little while, she carrying on with her daisy chain making while Ash picked the petals off of one, one at a time. She was happy there, like that, though when she saw a certain bunny jogging over she was even happier. "Hi Jack."

He stumbled up next to her before bending over, paws on his knees as he caught his breath. "Okay… I'm… not… fit… took… a… while… to… find… you…"

Her ears lowered, before she pulled him in with her arms to hug him. "Sorry there," she said. "I just really needed some emergency alone time. Especially after an argument with Nick."

"What about him?" he asked.

"He was climbing down the tree, sneaking and stuff," she sighed, before frowning. "I was already so tired and wound up when I saw him, and seeing that I was wrong, seeing that he hadn't changed… I just felt like the biggest idiot."

"Skye, your bunny is available to be petted."

She smiled a little and snuggled him up. "Thanks," she said, turning around to hug him. She sighed, relaxing as she noticed that some birds had turned up. A trio of magpies were fighting over the crust, and she enjoyed the spectacle while holding her bunny tight, cradling him. "You could be like this with the new kit in a month or so," she said, looking over at Ash.

The red fox nodded, looking at a fourth bird that was holding back scared in the bushes, before turning to her and clearing his throat. "Nick and my family were sitting up in the tree drinking cider, and he climbed down as part of a joke," he said, raising a finger.

Skye looked at him and blinked a few times, speechless.

Jack wasn't. "OVERPETTING! OVERPETTING! CAN'T BREATH!"

She looked down and let go of him, before looking away, burying her face in her paws. "Damn it, damn it, damn it!" she cried. "I'm such an idiot!" She gave the side of her head a few whacks, before sniffing. "I thought I'd been an idiot, now I'm even more of an idiot! And I hurt Nick, because I was stupid and mad and didn't want to listen, because I'm an idiot!"

Jack wandered over, despite a slight groan of pain, and patted her side, only getting a cold shoulder back. She was too far gone even for that. Instead, the jackrabbit looked up at Ash and frowned. "You could have given a warning."

"What," he asked. "Say, 'well if you think you're an idiot now, wait until you hear this?' That just makes it even worse!"

"I didn't say it was for her!" he said, only to pause as Skye turned to him.

"Oh gosh, I hurt you too!" she despaired, though she was stabilised a bit as Jack marched right into her stomach, her arms feebly reaching to stroke him. She paused, looking up at Ash, before looking down again.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't think you need to be sorry to me," Ash replied, shrugging. "I mean, I really like Nick. He's cool. But you made a mistake, you didn't realise that he was spending tonight helping my father track down a missing present."

"A missing…" she began, looking up. Her face winced again. "And so I screamed at him after he was helping out," she said mirthfully, before reaching for her crutches. "I'd better make this right then. Come on Jack, time to go."

He slipped out from her and helped her up, and together they began making their way back to the house. "I'm sorry," she said again.

Ash shrugged. "You made a guess, it was wrong," he said, looking up. He fidgeted with his sweat bands a little before carrying on. "Not the biggest mistake in the world."

She nodded, looking down at him and smiling. "Thanks," she said, as they carried on. "To make it up, I could help out with the search."

"Sure," Ash said. "I thought you might ask that. I thought you might be upset too." He then stuck a paw into his pocket and brought out a cookie. "So I brought this."

Skye looked at it and smiled. "You know, that's much nicer than lots of scribbles on my cast. Thanks." She stopped where she was, freeing a paw to take the cookie and munch on it, while Jack walked up to Ash.

…

"I only brought one."

"Aaahhhh," he moaned, before looking away. "By the way, how big is this present?"

"Photo album sized."

"I'll be happy to join in the search too!" he announced.

Ash nodded. "You can help Skye up the stairs."

She paused, before nodding. "Guess you can help me with that," she said, before offering down the remaining half of her cookie. He smiled and walked up to it, only for her to pull it up above his paw height. She smirked a bit as she led him around for a second or two, before he crossed his paws and looked at her.

"Skye," he lectured. "I am not some simple pet, to be led around with the promise of treats."

She smiled and passed it down to him. "I was just curious if that would work," she smirked, before grabbing her crutches again and taking off, the two boys following her.

Jack frowned and looked back at her, finishing off the cookie. "It was a one-time only thing, and don't you forget it!"

"Suuureee," she chirped, feeling a lot better now. "Again, thanks for that," she said to Ash.

"No worries."

She smiled. "Guess you're practicing for when you're a big brother."

He shrugged, before smiling a little as the three of them entered the kitchen, arriving to find Nick, Foxy, Kylie and Kris waiting for them. The Fox cop in particular was looking very proud of himself, only for that to be cut out as the mechanic vixen spoke his name.

"Nick?"

"Skye," he asked, turning to face her. "Now, if you ask these kind mammals…"

"I know," she cut in, scooting up next to him before hanging her head in shame. "I am so sorry for jumping to conclusions like that. I am so sorry, that after all you've done and all you've helped mammals, that I still judged you as the mammal that I used to know. I'm sorry that I jumped to conclusions, I'm sorry I didn't listen to you… and I'm sorry for hurting you."

She kept on looking down, only to jolt a bit as a paw landed on her shoulder. "Skye," Nick began. "I was only hurt because I hurt you, okay…"

"But it…" she began, only to be cut off.

"We did a dumb thing! Whoopsie, we all do," he said, before smiling a little. "Besides, these good mammals don't have our kind of history, do they?"

She blinked a few times, before smiling a bit.

"In any case, we've got you to thank for solving the mystery!"

"Huh?"

Nick smiled. "Just because it looks malicious doesn't mean it is," he explained. "It applies to me, and then I realised it could apply to our missing present too. A bit of logical thinking, and I think I know where to find it!" He looked around at everyone, before waving onwards. "Vamoose, gentlemammals."

And, with that, everyone followed him, Skye and Jack bringing up the rear. They quickly slipped through the main room and followed Nick to Mr Fox's master bedroom, opening it up. He took a few strides in, only to freeze in shock, as did everyone else as they filed in.

"Uhhh…" Nick began, not sure what to say.

Mr Fox looked around for a second or two, surveying the scene. "I think the words we're looking for is what-on-earth-happened-to-my-master-bedroom!?"

The same question was on everyone's tongue as they looked on at the heaping mess that covered the entire floor. It was as if some concentrated being of pure energy had gone around turning each and every item it could find over, emptying all the storage spaces and overturning a good chunk of the furniture too.

And then Judy burst out of one of the clothes piles, panting. "Okay, I'm pretty sure that it's not in this room, but I might have missed something. Maybe you guys can do a second look while I move to the next room up!"

…

"Carrots?" Nick asked, stepping forwards.

"Don't worry Nick," she said, running up to him. "We're going to find this thing. Now if…"

"Calm down Fluff, I've worked it out!"

"-we're going to save the day, we need to double our efforts and…"

Sighing, Nick grabbed the back of her head and pushed her right into his chest to cut her off, not that she kept trying.

"-MMMmmmmppphhhhhh…"

"Okay, breather there," he said, pulling her back out. She took a deep breath in and looked around. "Sorry there. Just panicking, trying to save the day…"

"I've worked it out," Nick said again, finally getting her attention.

Judy breathed a sigh of relief, before slumping down. "Oh… Good…"

Nodding, the fox stepped back, before looking up at the mess she'd made searching for the missing present. Finally out of her panicked state, she did too, looking around awkwardly. "Errr…"

"Effort, ten-out-of-ten," Nick commended. "Now, may I ask why you were searching for something you shouldn't have known was missing?" He looked back to Mr Fox, who began his rewinding motions as Judy spoke.

.

* * *

.

Waiting her turn, Judy finally got to the front of the queue, grabbing an orange pen and drawing a smiley carrot on Skye's cast. "There you go," she said, smiling as she patted it. Her enthusiasm waned a little as she looked up at the swift fox vixen, who didn't look quite as optimistic. Rather, she looked more stressed out, her top two canines biting her bottom lip while she held Jack tight. "Need anything else Skye?"

"-No-thanks."

"You sure?"

"Yep," she quipped, before nervously turning to the next mammal adding their signature. Feeling that it was best to back off, Judy did just that, moving out into the open just as she saw a whole line of mammals come out from the stairs. Mr Fox, Kris, Ash and Kylie. She paused though as she noticed no Nick. In fact, where was her fox? She walked over, picking out the opossum to speak to. "Hi, have you seen Nick anywhere?"

"We were just drinking cider up on one of the branches, he's going down the external route."

Her nose twitched a few times. "Okay… I guess? Anything else you lot were doing?"

"Just a failed search for Dr Silverfox's mysteriously vanished present. It was highly sentimental."

Judy blinked a few times. "What do you mean mysteriously vanished?"

"It's gone, and why it's gone is a mystery. We're giving it five before calling quits and roping in everyone's help."

"Right then," Judy murmured as he walked away. "Five minutes… -I bet I can find it in four!"

.

* * *

.

Rewind over, all eyes were trained on the opossum, especially Nick's. "Didn't I ask you if you'd told anyone?"

"No, you asked Foxy."

"He's got you there," Mr Fox agreed, the rest of the witnesses nodding along. Even Nick saw the funny side, rolling his eyes before looking down at Judy.

"Sadly, he set Miss Energizer Bun-Bun off, didn't he?"

She smiled nervously, before looking around at the mess she caused, deflating. Eyes in her paws, ears over them, she grunted. "I think I got a bit too carried away…"

Nick, and everyone else for that matter, gave a set of synchronised nods.

"Sorry for being such a dumb bunny," she said.

"Hey," Nick interrupted. "It's the thought that counts."

"It's also not your mess," she said guiltily, looking up to Mr Fox. "I'll clean it up," she promised, paw over her hearts.

He looked down at her before smiling. "Or maybe we could all dig in and help tidy this up…"

"-But I've already cleaned rooms!" Jack butted in, complaining. "Haven't I done enough, it's not like I caused the mess in this one?"

"You're right, Jack," Judy began, only for Skye's paw to shut her off. The Swift Fox vixen looked down at her boyfriend, a cunning smirk on her muzzle.

"This is doing more Jack," she pointed out, "besides, I've got the most excuse to not chip in."

He was quiet for a second or too, giving some silent grumbles, before she leant down and whispered in his ear.

Both of them shot upwards, his eyes wide. "Right, let's get to work!"

"Yup," Mr Fox said, "before we have any more unforeseen interruptions."

He dusted his paws, only to flinch down as an ominous BANG shook the room. Everyone shied their eyes away, before tenderly looking up, gulping as they saw a very irate looking Mrs Fox staring daggers at all of them; before turning them all onto her husband, naturally. "If…" she began, before shaking her head. "I don't even know what's happening here Foxy. You're going to tell me what's happening right now, so I can see if I need to be madder or not."

Her husband, unfazed, stood up to her. "Your brother-in-law's present went missing and I decided to secretly retrieve it, recruiting Nick and Kylie in for the job, which we soon failed at, Kris and Ash learning so; then Nick had an epiphany, he led us here, where Judy, having also learnt of the problem, was doing her best to solve it."

…

"Okay," she began, "I'm not mad now. -Wasn't expecting that." She paused a few times, before her eyes widened a little. "William's present is gone?"

"Completely vanished without a trace," Mr Fox explained.

"Oh god," she muttered, wincing over. Her husband stepped over to hold her, and she held back.

"Now, observe Exhibit B, this kind of emotional response is why I wanted to keep it a secret."

"What's Exhibit A?" Ash asked.

Nick held up Judy's paw in response.

The teen fox nodded. "Got it."

"I… I understand now," Felicity said quietly, looking up again into his eyes. A paw came up onto his shoulder and she smiled. "Thanks, I guess… -But who'd take that present? Why would they want to do such a thing?"

Her ears rose as Nick spoke up, a smug look on his muzzle. "Well, here's the thing, no one did."

"Nick?" Judy asked, confused.

The fox cop smiled, before suddenly walking straight into the en-suite bathroom and out again with the present held in his paws. Everyone's jaws seemed to hit the floor, eyes were wide, and the same question was on everyone's mind.

"What was it doing in there?" Mrs Fox asked.

"Well," Nick began, looking around. "When we all start cleaning up this mess, I'll explain it as we work."

And so they did, quickly undoing the damage that Judy's frantic search had done, the red fox narrating as he went. "We all assumed that someone had some dark reason for taking the present and hiding it. It made sense at first. But, after talking to all the suspects, none had a real drive or motive strong enough to do that. We were at a loss, no hope of finding our culprit left, until a series of strange events led to an agitated Skye mistakenly believing that I was up to no good. I tried to say that just because something looks bad, it doesn't mean it is, not that she listened to me. Thankfully, though, I did, and then it hit me. Who's to say that our present thief had any bad intentions too?"

"But what other intentions would you have for taking a present?" Judy asked.

"Who's to say they thought it was a present," Nick said. "It took a bit more thinking, before I realised just who took it."

"Who?"

Nick smiled, before glancing at Mr Fox. "Rewind please."

Mr Fox did just that.

.

.

.

**AN: That's right, we're ending it here. But can any of you guess how the book ended up there? Feel free to comment and see you all next week.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

.

**AN: So here we are, about to find out who-dunnit in the final chapter of this episode. There have been a good few guesses, but let's see who's right or wrong. Things have been hectic as of late with everything going on, but I've got into a good place to wait it out, best of luck to all of you guys too. But, for now, enjoy the conclusion to this highly eventful baby shower.**

.

.

.

**Earlier that evening.**

.

Badger nodded, still not quite convinced about Judy's assurances to keep Mr Fox out of trouble, and then stepped away from the table. As he did so though he jolted, frowning as a weak voice piped up. "Have you seen my box?"

Badger frowned. "No," he said, looking down. "Phil. While you may be legally blind, please look where you're going."

"I'm sorry," the small mole croaked. "I'm just pacing. I need the bathroom, and the queue is long."

"You know," Judy offered. "The en-suite upstairs is open. I can take you there."

He raised his little black muzzle up as he tried to look Judy in the face, and he spoke up, pointing straight forwards to Badger. "I want my independence and dignity. Don't hit me with your culture of low expectations," he said, before walking off. He looked around, his teeth grinding a little. Where did he put it, where did he put it?

"Ah, there you are," he said, making out the shape of his box. Walking over to grab it off of the pile it was on, he couldn't help but feel that it was far heavier than before. Not sure why that would be though. Regardless, he walked over to the stairs and began using it to help him up as he went. As the bunny had said, the upstairs bathroom wasn't in demand, so inside he went. Placing the box against a shelf, he did his business before climbing up onto the sink to wash his paws.

As he did so, his eyes widened. "I left you by that chair, didn't I!"

Drying them off, he walked back out to reclaim his real box, the present left waiting inside.

.

* * *

.

**Back in the present.**

.

"So," Nick concluded, as everyone put away the last of the displaced items. "No bad guy!"

"And, though there was a slight increase of those aware of the problem, our issue is still under control," Mr Fox concluded. "So, I think that's a win all around."

His wife smiled. "Now that it's over, I must say that this was a very fun baby shower. One for the memory books certainly."

Judy nodded, breathing a sigh of relief as she put the last folded shirt back onto its shelf. "Yes. All wrapped up nicely." She looked on, noticing Jack and Skye working too, the jackrabbit seemingly putting his whole back into it. The last few bits were put away and, finally, everyone began making their way down.

"Any idea what she said to get him to do that, miss wonder ears?" Nick asked, coming up to his bunny. He smiled smugly as she blushed, before shaking his head. "On second thoughts, I think I have a good idea."

"Yup," she noted, her voice clipped. "Unless you know anywhere else where she hasn't groomed him before." They carried down a little bit in silence, before she spoke again. "Well done, I'm proud of you."

His mouth piqued a little, and he looked down at her, almost unsure.

"What?" she said, joyfully. She gave him a pat on the arm before grabbing his paw. "You did all that to help out, and you solved the case. Great job."

He relaxed, a smile growing on his face. "Thanks. It was nothing, just some sneaking about and such."

"Well, it's that kind of sneaking that I love you for, isn't it?" she said.

He looked down at her, his smile growing, before pulling her into a hug. "Just like I love you for your crazy do-good energy miss room wrecker," he said, before leaning down to kiss her on the top of her head.

She shivered slightly, before holding back until they were on the stairs going down, using the height advantage to reach the back of his jaw and returning the favor.

"Maybe we should find somewhere private," he said, as she smiled back.

"Maybe I could treat you when we get back home," she suggested warmly, grabbing Nick's paw and working a finger around his central pad.

His fur stood up on end a little, and he looked down at Judy smugly. "As you wish."

"As do you," she said, as they all came out into the living room. Judy and Nick watched Mr Fox slip down the present onto the pile where it came from, the bunny also looking over and making sure that Phil the mole was holding onto his actual box. She sighed with relief, before snuggling up next to him. "Phew… Yeah, do stuff at home, I'm still a bit too stressed out from my emergency search right now," she admitted, holding her new necklace tight.

"Still fizzling with justice energy I see," he smirked.

"Yeah, though it was more justice stress," she admitted. "I just got so worked up then, just thinking about how it was stolen, and all the things ever stolen… I could imagine some evil people stealing the book, -well, I guessed it was a book, out of a safe and tearing it up to take away. I had to do something, so much so I just rushed into it, again…" She sighed at the admission, gathering the concern of Nick. Before he could speak though, he noticed Kris coming over, the silver fox smiling.

"You know, I could help with that. I practice meditation, and I could teach you guys it."

Judy looked up and nodded. "Okay then. That sounds great! Are you in too, Nick?"

"To keep you going too overboard, certainly," he agreed. "It may be short notice, but how about tomorrow, two pm?" he asked Kris.

"I'm free," Judy said.

"So am I," Kris agreed. They quickly agreed on a place to meet up, before parting ways again. It was then Skye and Jack's turn to come up to them.

"About earlier," she began. "Would you still be interested in meeting those two friends or ours?"

"The hyena and red panda?" Nick asked, before looking down at Judy. "Well, if Fluff here is…"

"Sure, it sounds great!"

"-Which it will be, so why not?"

"Yeah," Skye said happily.

"Better share details, find out a time or place," Judy said. "Anything you might want to do?"

Skye paused, ever conscious of her bad foot paw. "I'm not sure."

"I could probably work something out," Nick said, thinking. "What about those two?"

"I'd have to ask them."

"-You could watch my dress rehearsal."

There was a pause, as all eyes turned to Jack.

"What, it's on tomorrow at six, and it needs a small audience for participation. You could watch it, then we could go out."

They all turned to each other and nodded in agreement, all agreeing on it then and there.

And so, with a meditation lesson and a triple date planned for the next day, Nick and Judy could just chill out for the rest of the night, together.

Were it not for Kylie asking for Nick to go down to the office, that was.

.

Opening the door, Nick looked around for a second or two before leaning forwards, switching on the light switch and revealing Mr Fox in his chair, microphone on his lap desk just as before. The older vulpine frowned a bit and picked up the microphone, speaking into it. "You're ruining the effect, you know?"

"Do I know that?" Nick smirked, sitting down at the waiting chair. "Yes, yes I do."

"Right then," Mr Fox agreed, before pulling out a remote control and plunging the room into darkness.

"Huh?"

With a click, the desk lamp came on, revealing Mr Fox in his chair, complete with a lap desk and microphone. He held it and spoke into it, smiling as he did so. "So, the day is saved, thanks in no small part to you."

Nick relaxed a bit and shrugged. "Well, there was help from some other fine vulpines."

"There most certainly was."

"Indeed, who could think that one angry vixen could lead to such inspiration," Nick teased, Mr Fox taking it in good humor.

"Someone who's been married to one for fifteen years," Mr Fox countered. "Though keep in mind that this debrief is mostly in your honor."

Nick settled back, smiling. "I think I shall."

"Good," Mr Fox said, leaning forwards. "This was an enlightening and invigorating experience, having to go toe to toe with another highly talented vulpine as we pursued a common cause. Along with deciphering the mystery of the missing present, I also believe that this operation turned out to be a highly effective bonding exercise, in which we came to appreciate each other's talents, viewpoints and styles."

"I'lldrink to that – if you have any more of that cider, of course."

Mr Fox gave a smug smile before opening up a drawer in his desk, bringing out a new pair of bottles. Both Nick and Mr Fox took one, undid the tops, and clinked them together before taking a long swig.

"Aaaah," Nick said. "Good thing that Judy's driving."

"Yup," Mr Fox agreed, before putting his drink down. He kept his gaze fixed on Nick, to the point where it started to become uncomfortable.

The fox cop paused, tilting his head slightly. "I know this job was fun, and we may make a pretty good team, but if you've got another job it'll have to wait a little bit."

Mr Fox nodded along. "Well, maybe not so much a job, more a reward…"

"Is it the supplier of this stuff?" Nick asked with a smile.

"No," Mr Fox replied, trailing off a bit at the end. Nick put his drink down, his eyes narrowing as he studied the other vulpine. He was up to something… "It might be something a bit bigger."

"I'm fine, thanks," Nick replied, waving Mr Fox off.

"Let me rephrase that, something very big."

Nick paused, his ears lowering slightly. "It was just a little help," he said. "If you really want, a keg of that cider would do for tonight."

"Well, it's not just for tonight."

Nick paused, before smiling. "Mr Fox, if you're referring to my help with Ash…"

"Which I am."

"Then that was what I do in the ZPD," he said, "and the ZPD does have a few rules about rewards and stuff. Irritating, I know, but…"

"-Mind if I start over," Mr Fox interrupted, Nick pausing before nodding in agreement. The older vulpine smiled but fidgeted slightly, looking down at his microphone before picking it up and dropping it on the floor, a squeal ringing out.

"Oooh, mic drop," Nick noted.

"Yes," Mr Fox said frankly. More frankly than Nick had ever heard him before. The fox cop looked forwards, into the other fox's eyes, and saw them tinge slightly with sadness and worry and all sorts of other things he wouldn't expect from the otherwise all-confident fox. "I think that was warranted," he said, before breathing out. "Nick, when I heard that my son had almost killed himself, it was the greatest shock in my life. As far as I knew, everything was fine, everything was good, and then everything was turned upside down and I realised that I knew nothing. Nothing, other than the fact that it could have been worse. The only reason it wasn't was because of you.

"Because of you, I could go back and learn about the mistakes I didn't even know I'd made and fix them. I realised that I'd been failing, and set about to succeed. I love my son, but I took that for granted, just like I took the idea that he loved me for granted. Now I know better and always keep an eye out, I always try and show it, and it seems to be working. Things will be okay for him, and for my new kit as well. A new kit who wouldn't have his big brother were it not for the fox sitting in front of me. The fox who my son looks up to, the fox who saved the city, the fox who could make a pretty damn good partner if the need ever arose. More than a partner, even. Nicholas Wilde, my family will forever be in your debt, and all we can offer you in return is the invitation to be a part of it. You, Nicholas Wilde, will always be a member of our family."

Nick looked on, paws over his heart, and nodded. He then let a warm smile grow on his muzzle. "To be there, as a family friend… I like the sound of that reward."

Mr Fox smiled, before raising a finger. "An official member of the family, not just a mere friend."

Nick looked on, his mouth piquing a little. "Well, I could think of one way of making that happen, but my mother really isn't Dr Silverfox's type you know."

Mr Fox snorted a little before shaking his head. "Unusual option, creative, but not quite what I had in mind."

"Which is?" Nick asked.

"You're going to like this."

"You're going to drag this out, aren't you?"

"Naturally."

Nick smiled back. "Well, you have to hype up your Fox family membership certificate, don't you?" Closing his eyes in a warm smile, Nick opened them again, and saw Mr Fox looking at him, his face etched with sincerity.

"As I said before, you helped our current son and you'll almost certainly look out over him and my new kit, being a role model that they will always look up to. You're the kind of mammal that will care for them, protect them, and love them, even though they're not your own. Which is why I'd like you to be my new kit's godfather."

…

"I…" Nick began, before his throat hitched.

He was speechless.

He felt overwhelmed and unworthy and scared and full on blindsided, but as the shock receded and he looked into Mr Fox's confidant eyes, shining confidence at himself, he swallowed it down. He closed his eyes, took a breath in, and let other feelings rise up. Surprise and joy and hope and one more than any other.

He leant forwards and took Mr Fox's paw. "It would be an honour."

.

.

Back up in the main room, Judy smiled as Nick and Mr Fox emerged, looking up as her boyfriend walked over. She couldn't help but see the giddy happiness on his face. He looked like he'd just been given access to a swimming pool full of blueberries. "Guess you heard some good news then," she said, smiling.

Despite his joy, he managed to pull down a sly mask. "Yup."

"And what is it exactly?"

"Oh, you'll see," he said, as they turned to see Kris and his father walk up to a waiting Felicity. The teenage silver fox went first, giving his aunt a small present which she carefully unwrapped, revealing a homemade baby book, beautiful little images painted onto the cardboard. She smiled as she looked through it.

"I remember you reading it to me over the phone," she said, looking at her nephew.

"I remember my mom reading the original," he said. Felicity nodded, before looking down and stroking her baby bump, reading from the book as she did so.

" _Little foxes, with their bushy tails,_

_little foxes, with their pointy ears,_

_little foxes, across the world,_

_little foxes, all different types._

_There's a sandy one, in the desert,_

_With his big ears, he's a fennec._

_There's a white one, near the north pole,_

_Brown in the summer, she's an arctic._

_._

_And in Africa, there are tan ones,_

_With many different types._

_Like the fennec, they have big ears,_

_But they're not all the same._

_There's a cape one, and a pale one,_

_And even the_ _Rüppell's fox._

_And in Arabia, there's the Blanford's fox,_

_And all have bushy tails._

_._

_And in Asia you have more foxes,_

_They all have sandy coats,_

_And little kits that love to play,_

_Every single day._

_There's a Tibetan fox, with a square face,_

_Who lives near the corsac fox._

_While in India, there's a Bengal fox,_

_All with bushy tails._

_._

_And in America, there's the swift fox,_

_And his friend, the kit fox,_

_And in Europe and everywhere,_

_You can find the red fox too._

_But sometimes, his fur is grey,_

_And sometimes it is white,_

_Or it's many colours, or marbled,_

_But all have bushy tails._

_._

_Little foxes, little foxes,_

_All across our big wide world._

_Little foxes, little foxes,_

_With pointy ears, and fluffy tails._

_They all have kits, that love to play,_

_And love to pounce, and dig things up._

_Every single day._

_Little foxes, little foxes,_

_Different colours, but all the same."_

_._

Nick looked down and smiled as he saw Judy bring her paws to her heart, gushing over the cuteness of it all. He and she looked over, spotting some of the pretty illustrations that Kris had painted or drawn on.

Then Kris's father walked up and handed over his present. Holding it with great care and attention, Felicity slowly unwrapped the paper to reveal a hard-covered sketchbook.

"So, it was a book," Judy noted, Nick looking down. "I imagined it was one… -though I also imagined a silver fox head cut-out on the front for some reason."

Felicity, meanwhile, ran a pad along it and peaked in closer, only to freeze. She sniffed a few times, holding back the tears, before she came in close with her nose, taking some deep breaths. "It still smells like her," she whispered, her eyes glistening. Opening it up, she gasped as she saw the pencil drawings or paintings done within. There were plenty of ones with motorbikes or cars to begin with, along with a fair few pretty vixens, but as she went through the pages a familiar face began appearing. Dr Silverfox looked far younger and healthier in them, unhurt by the ravages of time, grief and illness. But, as she filtered through further, a new face appeared. A tiny grey cub, his first appearance being cradled by his mother, the self-portrait showing her in her hospital bed and gown alongside her mate. More sketches followed, showing the tiny kit grow up into a toddler, before ending with a shining photograph of the young family. Tears trickled down Felicity's eyes, her husband hugging her side, while her brother in law leant in and pulled the page over. She gasped as she saw a new picture, the style change evident, which showed Dr Silverfox and Kris. There was another of the teenage fox and his cousin, before the next page held a small bit of writing. ' _Dear Felicity. I hope these memories serve you well, as they have done me. In the future, you need only ask and I or my son will be glad to carry on adding to them. Love, your brother.'_

"Thank you," she whispered, gently putting the book down before stepping up to hold him tight.

He patted her back, before she settled down, a paw rubbing her bump.

Mr Fox, standing up, nodded and spoke out. "I'd like to thank you all for coming today, and for all your generosity. You all have our thanks. On behalf of my new kit, his or her parents, brother, cousin, uncle and, as of today, godfather." He pointed over to where Nick was standing, several gasps coming from the crowd as he nodded his head, before they began clapping.

Judy naturally trying to beat them all. "Oh my gosh oh my gosh!" she buzzed, ecstatic.

Nick looked at her and smirked, about to make a witty comment but receiving a high-pressure bun hug around the waist before he could manage. He turned down and stroked her ears a few times, before looking up and smiling. "What can I say, our host has taste."

.

The rest of the evening went quickly, Skye and Jack coming over to congratulate him. Skye in particular was ever sincere, and, when she left, she told Nick that she was deeply looking forward to meeting them again. Farewells were given, paws were shook, and the bunny and fox duo got in their car and began making their way home.

"So, Mr Godfather," Judy said, glancing at him as she drove. "How does it feel?"

"How did it feel when you became a godmother?" he asked.

"So, pretty amazing then," she said, nodding at him before turning her eyes back to the road. Slipping through Nick's neighbourhood, she couldn't help but sigh as she remembered what became of the mammal who made her into a godparent.

She breathed out. If little Judy or Fru Fru ever needed any help at all, she would be there for them. She'd make sure of it.

And so, they arrived home, Nick letting them in as they settled down. It was too late to do anything other than get ready for bed, and Judy reflected on that as she dumped her things onto his couch.

The godfather's couch, she noted, spotting him turn a corner, his tail flicking out as he did so. He was the fox that had swindled her, and insulted her, and tried to make her life a pain. But he'd turned around for her, reformed for her, tortured himself for her and saved her life. Saved many lives, to the point where a family was going to trust him to help raise their new kit, and help out their older one. A family who trusted him on their very own little mission.

And through it all, her boyfriend was sweet and kind and funny. He'd been there and helped out, solving today's mystery, much more effectively than she had she noted.

He was amazing, and then and there she realised how much she loved him. How much she cared for him. How much she loved his smile and wit and touch and his big bushy tail. How much she loved her fox, her boyfriend, and how much she wanted him. She may have started this relationship out to see how it went, she may have only just begun to really enjoy it, but she was a goner now.

A complete and total one.

Her fox filled her mind, filled her soul, and she felt herself crave and itch for him. She wanted him, then and there, and nothing could stop her anymore.

Stripping all her clothes off, bar her crop top and underwear, she walked up to his bathroom and knocked on the door.

"Just a sec and I'll be out."

"Good," she said, "as I want to see my foxer in his boxers."

…

The door opened, and Nick looked out, blinking at the site of Judy before a mischievous grin grew on his face. "Hello there."

"Hello," she said back, leaning forward to stroke up the front of his one item of clothing with the back of her paw.

His body shook a little, his tail bristling out behind him. "You really want this?" he asked, beginning to breath faster.

"Are we the best dressed mammals in all of Zootopia?" she asked, as she breathed in, picking up his musk.

Nick saw it and cradled the back of her head, pushing it deep into his belly fur and smushing it around. "Maybe not today," he gasped, as she pushed her body forwards and up. "But for next time, I know a place that sells some real -LONG stockings! Oh that was sly, my sly bunny."

"You know you love me," came her fox muffled voice. She broke off from him and looked up into his eyes, both sharing the same longing, hungry, untameable, untrappable, lust filled predatory look.

There was no hope of holding back.

Not any more.

He slipped a paw beneath her rear, pinching her tail as he prepared to carry her off and smiling as he did so. "Oh, do I…"

**Author's Note:**

> Major kudos to my proofer Dancou Maryuu for coming up with the name 'Foxes and Friends', after I could only come up with the working title 'The Baby Shower Job'.


End file.
